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Survey: Brits think bacon comes from sheep

A survey of British youngsters suggests 26 percent of the country's under-16 population erroneously believe bacon comes from sheep.

The survey of 800 children and adults, conducted for the Home Grown Cereals Authority and the National Farmers' Union, also suggests 29 percent of youngsters believe oats grow on trees and 17 percent of both children and adults are under the false impression that eggs are a necessary ingredient in bread, the Daily Mail reported.

"Everyone should know where primary foods like cereals are grown and the role they play as part of a healthy, balanced diet," said Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union. More

President Cristina Fernandez Says Eating Pork Improves Sexual Activity

Argentina's president thinks eating pig meat is really sexy.

Many people in this beef-loving nation reacted with surprise Thursday after Cristina Fernandez promoted pork in a speech during which she not only said pork is better than Viagra, but suggested she's personally proven it.

"I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity," Fernandez said in a meeting with representatives of the swine industry late Wednesday. "It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra."

She even joked that "it was all good" after she enjoyed some pork with her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner.

"I think they might be right," Fernandez said to a laughing audience. More

Woman Kills Boyfriend by Sitting on Him

A woman in Cleveland pleaded guilty to sitting on her 120 pound boyfriend and killing him.

Police said Mia Landingham and Mikal Middleston-Bey, who have three children together, got into an argument in August. During the altercation Landingham sat on Middleston-Bey.

Landingham pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Her attorney told said there was a long history of domestic abuse in the relationship. He asked the judge for leniency and pointed out she has no prior criminal record.

Landingham she was sorry for squashing the father of her children. More

Man OK After Penis Gets Stuck in Pipe

Medics at Southampton General Hospital struggled to get the man's penis out of the stainless steel pipe, because the restricted blood flow had caused it to become erect.

Instead, they resorted called in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The fire crew turned up with a special equipment unit from St Mary's station in Southampton and seven firefighters to help, in what a spokesman understatedly described as a 'delicate operation'.

The firefighters used the four-and-a-half-inch industrial metal grinder to cut the pipe from around the anaesthetised man's penis. More

Teacher Cuts Off Girl's Braid In School

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee teacher was charged with disorderly conduct after cutting off a 7-year-old's braid in front of her classmates, WISN-TV in Milwaukee reported.

Lamya Cammon was angry, confused and scared by the incident last week in which the apparently frustrated teacher cut one of her braids off after she wouldn't stop playing with them in class.

Cammon, 7, sports a few dozen braids, but one is conspicuously absent. "She told me to stop playing with it, then cut it off and sent me back to my desk," Cammon said.

Cammon, a first-grader at Congress Elementary, said her teacher used a pair of classroom scissors to cut off one of the braids after she absent-mindedly kept playing with them. More

40% of Australian women wear a bra with a cup size DD or bigger

THE bra market is expanding, literally. Up to 40 per cent of Australian women now buy bras with a cup size of DD or higher, new figures from lingerie suppliers show.

In the 1950s, the most common bra-cup size was a B - three sizes less than a DD.

Modern breasts are getting so large that some bra companies have introduced cup sizes as high as K, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

Experts blame the cleavage boost on obesity, contraceptive pills and artificial hormones.

Bra company Eveden Australia launched a K cup into the market last year. The company's fitting specialist, Victoria Jubb, said obesity contributed significantly to the expanding chest sizes but the number of small-figured women with large breasts was on the increase. More

South Carolina man gets 3 years prison for sex with horse

A South Carolina man caught on video having sex with a horse was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison after pleading guilty for the second time in two years to abusing the creature.

Rodell Vereen was also ordered never to go near the stable where the horse's owner caught him and held him for authorities at shotgun point over the summer. He apologized to the woman and to himself after admitting to buggery at the Horry County courthouse.

"I'm sorry about what I've done. I didn't mean to do it. It's my fault. I'm sorry for what I've done to myself," Vereen said during Wednesday's court hearing.

Vereen was arrested in July after Barbara Kenley caught him entering the barn at Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach. She had been staking out the stable for more than a week after setting up a surveillance camera and videotaping Vereen's assault on her 21-year-old horse named Sugar. More

Drunk 4-Year-Old Steals Christmas Presents

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A 4-year-old boy, beer in hand, is accused of stealing Christmas presents from his neighbors. It's a strange story, but also a sad one.

April Wright is 21 years old and is going through a divorce with her husband who is in jail. She says she is not sure how her 4-year-old managed to get out of the house, open a beer, and steal the neighbors presents from under their tree. Now she's just glad he's okay and says she won't let it happen again.

The child, Hayden Wright, was found around 1:45 am Tuesday, wandering the streets of his neighborhood. In a police reports, officers said he was wearing a little girl's dress and drinking a beer. The police report says the child had to taken to the hospital to be treated for alcohol consumption. April Wright said, "Biggest concern was him being out there, getting kidnapped, getting run over, the alcohol, having to have his stomach pumped." More

What naughty grandpa does while granddaughter plays

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Punta Gorda Police tell WINK News they arrested 65-year-old Robert F. Desmarais of Port Charlotte on Saturday. Police say he was caught masturbating in the parking lot of Kiddieland at Gilchrist Park.

Witnesses notified police it appeared Desmarais was masturbating while seated in his Jeep.

Police reports say Desmarais brought his 8-year-old granddaughter to Kiddieland and remained in the car while she played on the playground. According to police, Desmarais admitted to masturbating in his vehicle while his granddaughter played in the park. More

Woman loses nipples in botched sex change surgery

KUALA LUMPUR: A 36-year-old businesswoman’s life-long wish to become a man by removing her breasts was dashed when she ended up losing more than she bargained for and became RM24,000 poorer to boot.

Instead of having her breasts removed, the woman, who only wished to be known as Sam, ended up losing both her nipples after a botched cosmetic surgery left her with a nasty infection and a bad scar.

In a press conference at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department, Sam said she had gone to a beauty salon in Subang in May to undergo the procedure. More

Man charged with DWI in motorized La-Z-Boy

A Proctor man driving a motorized La-Z-Boy lounge chair hit a parked vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, pleaded guilty Monday in St. Louis County District Court to DWI in connection with the Aug. 31, 2008, incident in Proctor. There were no injuries.

According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle parked near a Proctor bar. Anderson told police he was traveling from the Keyboard Lounge after consuming approximately eight or nine beers. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive.

Anderson claimed he was driving the chair fine until a woman jumped on it and knocked the chair off course. He has one prior DWI conviction. More

Teenager admits to raping siblings

A KwaZulu-Natal South Coast teenager has admitted to raping his two sisters and brother over a period of 10 days, apparently because he was upset that their father had gone to jail for raping his sisters.

The 18-year-old from Umzinto - who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims - blamed his siblings for the fact that their father had been imprisoned for life. The State alleged, in its indictment before Judge Achmat Jappie in the Ramsgate High Court this week, that he had decided to take revenge.

In a written plea before the court, the teenager admitted raping his 13-year-old sister on January 20 this year, and again seven days later.

He also admitted to "holding her down" while a friend also raped her. More

Shag bands a parent's worst nightmare

THEY look like a symbol of childhood innocence. But these colourful bracelets are behind an "insidious" craze of primary school kids performing sex acts that it is feared will soon sweep through Queensland.

Rather than a mere fashion statement, the so-called "shag bands" are linked to gradations of sexual behaviour. A Facebook page about the innocuous-looking bands has already been inundated with more than 12,000 fans.

The game involves a boy or girl trying to break the rubber band off the wearer's wrist. If it snaps, the wearer has to perform the favour corresponding to the colour.

Snap an orange band and get a kiss, snap a yellow and get a hug. But snap a black, light blue or light green band, and the "prize" is something far more sinister. More

Guilty of negligence in son's home circumcision

A Metro Vancouver man who circumcised his four-year-old son at home with a razor blade and used blood coagulant meant for horses has been found guilty of negligence causing bodily harm.

The man, identified in a court ruling on Wednesday as DJW, admitted that in 2007 he circumcised his son, DJ, who was born at 2.5 pounds and couldn't be circumcised at birth.

The man performed the circumcision just a few years after he circumcised himself. After he did that, his foreskin bled in nine places, doctors sutured it at hospital and his penis became infected.

DJW's lawyer, Doug Christie, said, "He learned from that experience to do things differently." More

Elderly Man With Oxygen Tank Robs La Jolla Bank

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- A neatly-dressed elderly male robber carrying an oxygen tank presented a demand note to a teller at a La Jolla bank Saturday and fled on foot with an unknown amount of cash, police said.

The heist was reported at 10:12 a.m. at the San Diego National Bank in the 7800 block of Ivanhoe Ave., according to San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick.

It was unclear whether the man had a weapon, the sergeant said. The robber was described as a white man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses, 6 feet 6 inches tall, wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and brown sports jacket, a dispatcher said.

It's not often you see a bank robbery suspect believed to be in his 70s or 80s carrying an oxygen tank with tubes in his nose. More

Expecting Sex With Craigslist Prostitute, Robbed Instead

SAN DIEGO -- A 34-year-old man who went to a La Mesa motel, apparently thinking he was going to have sex with a 17-year-old girl who advertised on craigslist, was robbed, and police arrested the girl and an accomplice, police said Tuesday.

The victim, whose name police withheld, met the girl at a room at the Heritage Inn, 7851 Fletcher Parkway, around 10:35 p.m. Monday, La Mesa police Lt. David Bond said.

After some brief sexual touching, the man gave the girl $100 for additional sexual services, Bond said.

About that time, a man in a mask came out of the bathroom with a knife, he said, and the would-be john fled and called police. More

Fripp Island golfer loses arm to alligator

A 77-year-old man lost his arm below the elbow Thursday when he was attacked by an alligator while playing golf on Fripp Island.

The man, the father of a Fripp Island property owner, was playing the 11th hole of the island's Ocean Creek Golf Course at about 3 p.m. when the attack occurred. The victim was leaning down to pick up his ball when a 10-foot long alligator grabbed his arm, said Kate Hines, general manager of the Fripp Island Property Owners Association.

Hines said the alligator dragged the man into a nearby pond and went into a series of "death rolls," a technique the reptile uses to tear apart its food. The man lost his arm in the struggle. More

Woman Sets Self On Fire At Mall

MIAMI -- A woman has been hospitalized after she set herself on fire inside a South Florida mall on Thursday afternoon, police said.

Witnesses said the woman, whom police identified as 42-year-old Cecilia Casals, lit herself on fire inside a store at the Mall of the Americas.

Police said Casals tried to commit suicide by covering her clothing with accelerant before setting herself on fire.

The woman stunned shoppers when she walked out of a boutique near Ross with her body covered in flames.

"When she walked out of the bathroom, she was lit on fire. She was walking to the middle of the mall. People started screaming hysterically," said witness Jose Morales. More

Man escapes charges for barbecuing pet dog

A man who roasted his pet dog to enjoy as a meal with his family and friends escaped prosecution after authorities in New Zealand determined the animal was killed humanely.

"We were in a dilemma at seeing something we were fairly upset about -- but being in a position of being able to do absolutely nothing about it," said Garth Halliday, of the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on Monday.

The SPCA -- which investigates acts of animal cruelty and presses charges -- responded to the house in Mangere, south of Auckland. There, officers found the charred body of a Staffordshire terrier cooking in a barbecue pit. More

Sheriff fires one deputy, suspends 3 others after Round Rock incident

The five Midland County Sheriff’s Office deputies involved in the photography incident with a scantily-clad waitress holding a county-issued rifle in Round Rock have all received disciplinary action, including one deputy who was terminated and three who have been suspended without pay.

Sheriff Gary Painter apologized to the citizens of Midland County at a press conference Wednesday afternoon for the actions his deputies were involved in while attending a patrol interdiction class in Cedar Park last week.

“I am very embarrassed by what happened and hurt at the same time,” Painter said, adding he understands if those in law enforcement want to unwind or drink from time to time.

“But in this particular instance, people got stupid real quick ... It went from not very smart to very stupid in about 30 seconds.” More

Man jailed for not supporting someone else's child

ADEL, Ga. - A Georgia man spent more than a year behind bars for failing to pay child support for a child that wasn't his, but he was released after DNA tests showed he wasn't the father.

Frank Hatley, 50, had been jailed since June 2008 for not making payments, but two separate DNA tests in the last nine years showed he was not the father of the boy, who is now 21.

Southern Center for Human Rights attorney Sarah Geraghty won Hatley's release at a hearing Wednesday in Superior Court. A court order has also relieved him of his financial obligation to the Georgia Department of Human Resources.

"State child support officials have shown extraordinarily poor judgment in Mr. Hatley's case," Geraghty said. More

Men-only train cars sought in groping fears

TOKYO (Reuters) - Many women taking the crowded train in Tokyo opt for women-only carriages during the rush hour to avoid gropers.

Now, for fear of being accused of groping, some are asking for carriages reserved for men as well.

Ten shareholders of Seibu Holdings, which runs trains in the Tokyo area, have petitioned for carriages reserved for men.

"There have been many cases of groping, as well as false charges of groping, on Seibu Railway," the shareholders said in a notice seeking a vote at the company's annual meeting. More

Woman Accused Of Killing Newborn, Ate Brain

SAN ANTONIO — The scene was so gruesome investigators could barely speak: A 3 1/2-week-old boy lay dismembered in the bedroom of a single-story house, three of his tiny toes chewed off, his face torn away, his head severed and his brains ripped out.

"At this particular scene you could have heard a pin drop," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Monday.

"No one was speaking. It was about as somber as it could have been."

Officers called to the home early Sunday found the boy's mother, Otty Sanchez, sitting on the couch with a self-inflicted wound to her chest and her throat partially slashed, screaming "I killed my baby! I killed my baby!" police said. She told officers the devil made her do it, police said. More

Daily sex 'best for good sperm'

Having sex every day improves sperm quality and could boost the chances of getting pregnant, research suggests.

In a study of men with fertility problems, daily ejaculation for a week cut the amount of DNA damage seen in sperm samples.

Speaking at a fertility conference, the Australian researcher said general advice for couples had been to have sex every two or three days. More

Assault victim bites off attacker's tongue

A man was arrested in a hospital emergency room where he had gone for treatment about an hour after a woman he allegedly raped bit off his tongue, police said.

Murrieta police were summoned to the apartment in the 24000 block of Hancock Avenue around 10:23 a.m. There they found a woman with injuries consistent with a violent assault, according to a police news release.

Officers found a severed tongue at the scene.

Around 11 a.m., the suspect, 32-year-old Ronald McGowan, of West Covina, arrived at the Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, police said. More

New Zealand airline issues nude safety video

New Zealand's national airline has adopted a cheeky way to encourage passengers to watch its in-flight safety video: The cabin crew's uniforms are nothing but body paint.

The "Bare Essentials of Safety," screening in the cabins of planes flying Air New Zealand's main domestic routes, has gone viral online. It had 1.2 million YouTube views by Friday, four days after it was launched. In the video, three cabin staff and a pilot, all in full body paint applied to look like their uniforms, talk viewers through the aircraft's safety procedures. A demonstration seat belt, life jacket and arm rests are strategically positioned during the 3 1/2-minute video to protect the cabin crew's ... discretion. Passengers are shown ogling, mostly in appreciation. More

One in Five Americans Pee in Pool

Findings from a recent survey show that when it comes to public pools this summer, watch thy fellow swimmer closely! Rather than worry about the availability of lounge chairs, lockers, and food and beverages, swimmers should be thinking more about basic questions of pool water cleanliness.

According to a survey conducted by the Water Quality & Health Council, 84 percent of Americans believe their fellow swimmers participate in unhygienic pool behavior - and they may be right. In fact, almost half (47%) admit to one or more behaviors that contribute to an unhealthy pool.

Peeing in the pool?

One in five say they've done it (17%) - and eight in ten (78%) are convinced their fellow swimmers are guilty. As far as showering goes - forget it. Roughly one third (35%) pass the shower without stopping and three quarters (73%) say their fellow swimmers fail to shower before swimming. More

Britain's 66 y/o mum tried for an IVF baby five years ago

The woman expecting to become Britain's oldest mother tried to have a child through IVF around five years ago, a friend said yesterday.

Elizabeth Adeney, 66, was left 'emotionally exhausted' by the process and considered giving up.

But she persevered after seeking advice and is now expecting her child - understood to be a son - weeks before her 67th birthday.

The friend said: 'Liz first failed to fall pregnant several years ago and only wanted to go through the process again if it was likely to work. More

8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband

An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.

A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then. There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it. More

Feds plug a real leak: Cameras reveal alleged elevator urinator at IRS center

DETROIT - An agent used surveillance cameras to confirm a smelly suspicion: Someone had been urinating in a freight elevator at an Internal Revenue Service data center in Detroit.

Authorities filed a criminal charge Tuesday against Michael Hicks. In an affidavit, treasury agent Delmaria Scott said she interviewed Hicks in January 2008 and he admitted urinating in the elevator for months. Scott said Hicks did it "because he felt he could get away with it." It cost $4,600 to clean the elevator. More

Blind Bakersfield boy: 'Daddy ate my eyes'

Police believe a Bakersfield man bit the eyeball out of his son's face and ate it, according to court documents. The 4-year-old's other eye was damaged beyond repair, reports said.

The boy's missing eye could not be located, reports said, and he told a detective, ''Daddy ate my eyes.''

Prosecutors have charged Angelo Vidal Mendoza Sr., 34, with mayhem, torture and child cruelty. He's being held in the downtown jail in lieu of $1 million bail. More

Blondes March to Cheer Up Nation

Several hundred blonde women marched through the Latvian capital Riga yesterday in a bid to cheer up the crisis-hit Baltic nation, suffering the worst recession of all 27 EU member states.

Led by an orchestra, the first-ever blonde parade featured women dressed in pink and white, some accompanied by lapdogs, in a charity fund-raising event that organisers hope will become an annual event.

"I'm not stupid. I'm beautiful and I'll prove it," Ilona Zigure, a participant, said. Organisers said they were determined to bring positive energy to their country, expected to see its economy contract by 16 per cent this year.

The parade was part of a "Blonde Weekend" which also featured a blonde golf tournament, a little lady fashion show, an evening ball, and a children's drawing competition. More

Affairs of the Lips: Why We Kiss

When passion takes a grip, a kiss locks two humans together in an exchange of scents, tastes, textures, secrets and emotions.

We kiss furtively, lasciviously, gently, shyly, hungrily and exuberantly. We kiss in broad daylight and in the dead of night.

We give ceremonial kisses, affectionate kisses, Hollywood air kisses, kisses of death and, at least in fairytales, pecks that revive princesses.

Lips may have evolved first for food and later applied themselves to speech, but in kissing they satisfy different kinds of hungers. In the body, a kiss triggers a cascade of neural messages and chemicals that transmit tactile sensations, sexual excitement, feelings of closeness, motivation and even euphoria. More

Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice

An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws — evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire. The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.

The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576.

"Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did," said Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University who studied the case over the last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire." More

Swiss heartland voters ban nude hiking in Alps

APPENZELL, Switzerland — Voters in the heart of the Swiss Alps on Sunday passed legislation banning naked hiking after dozens of mostly German nudists started rambling through their picturesque region.

By a show of hands citizens of the tiny canton (state) of Appenzell Inner Rhodes voted overwhelmingly at their traditional open-air annual assembly to impose a 200 Swiss franc ($176) fine on violators.

Only a scattering of people on Sunday opposed the ban on the back-to-nature activity that took off last autumn when naked hikers – primarily Germans – started showing up in eastern Switzerland. More

Oral sex linked to throat cancer

A virus contracted through oral sex is the cause of some throat cancers, say US scientists.

HPV infection was found to be a much stronger risk factor than tobacco or alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins University study of 300 people found.

The New England Journal of Medicine study said the risk was almost nine times higher for people who reported oral sex with more than six partners. But experts said a larger study was needed to confirm the findings.

Oral sex was said to be the main mode of transmission of HPV but the researchers said mouth-to-mouth transmission, for example through kissing, could not be ruled out. More

West Virginia: Incest good, Barbie bad

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Barbie's life in plastic? Not so fantastic, as far as one Lincoln County delegate is concerned

Democrat Jeff Eldridge introduced a bill in the House of Delegates on Tuesday that would ban the sale of Barbie dolls - and "other dolls that influence girls to be beautiful" - in West Virginia.

Eldridge said the dolls have encouraged girls to value their physical appearance more than their education and intelligence.

"I hate the myth around, if you're beautiful, you don't have to be smart," Eldridge said.

His bill, HB 2918, would make it illegal to sell Barbie dolls "and other similar dolls that promote or influence girls to place an undue importance on physical beauty to the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development." More

Motorist wanted to drive home in the nude

A driver caught naked while parked on the side of the road apparently had an urge to drive home in the buff.

That’s the story that Anderson, California police officer Mathew Goodwin got from the unidentified man Wednesday night at Interstate 5 and Balls Ferry Road.

The driver, who was in his mid- to late-40s, shed his clothes while in the car about 10 p.m.

The officer, who thought better of asking the man to step out of his vehicle, also noticed the man had several adult movies in a paper bag. More

Insemination fight ends in wife's arrest

PITTSFIELD — A woman who allegedly intended to artificially inseminate her wife with her brother's semen has been charged with domestic assault and battery.

Pittsfield police responded to a call shortly before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the city's Morningside neighborhood, where the assault allegedly occurred. Stephanie K. Lighten, 26, was released on personal recognizance after denying the allegations in Central Berkshire District Court Wednesday morning. Jennifer A. Lighten, 33, told police that Stephanie Lighten, her wife, was "all liquored up" when she returned to their Lincoln Street apartment, where the defendant then allegedly tried to use a syringe to inseminate her, according to a police report.

Jennifer told investigating officers that Stephanie "has been talking about trying to impregnate (her) for some time," police said. According to a report by Pittsfield Police Officer Kipp D. Steinman: "Jennifer said that Stephanie had a 'turkey baster and her brother's semen in a sealed container.' More

Edible Excretions: Taiwan's Toilet Restaurant

"There's poop everywhere! Y-u-c-k," says 6-year-old Jordan Lien as he and his family dine at the Modern Toilet, a popular Taiwanese restaurant chain that's expanding into China and other parts of Asia. The boy was looking at the poop-shaped lights and dish covers and the curry on toilet-shaped plates.

Diarrhea for dinner? That's the point. "It's supposed to shock and confuse the senses," says Modern Toilet manager Chen Min-kuang. But as Jennifer Finch, an American who was dining there, described it, "They do it tastefully. It's all very clean."

Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet. More

Ugandan Men Warned of Booby Trap

Uganda’s police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious.

“They apply this chemical to their chest. We have found victims in an unconscious state,” Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesman Fred Enanga told AFP.

“You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him,” he said. “And the victim doesn’t remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing.”

Enanga said he first came across the practice last year when an apprehended thief named Juliana Mukasa made a clean breast of the matter. More

Chinese mistress contest takes tragic turn

BEIJING, China - A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.

But the contest took a fatal turn when one of the women, eliminated for her looks, drove the man and the four other competitors off a cliff, Chinese media reported.

The spurned mistress died and the other passengers were injured, the reports said. Police initially thought the car had plummeted off a mountain road in eastern China on December 6 by accident. Then they learned of the contest through a letter the dead woman had left behind, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said.

The 29-year-old woman, identified only as Yu, was a waitress when she met the businessman at a restaurant in the coastal city of Qingdao in 2000. More

Child Left In Freezing Car While Dad Visits Teen Girl

GREAT FALLS, Mont. -- A 22-year-old Montana man has been arrested after his 4-year-old daughter was left in a car for hours in below-zero temperatures.

Jeramey Sheeler, of Vaughn, Mont., faces a charge of criminal endangerment. Great Falls Police Lt. Jack Allen says Sheeler left his sleeping daughter in a Jeep parked on the street early Saturday while he went inside a house to visit a 13-year-old girl.

When the 4-year-old woke up, she got out of the vehicle and starting going house-to-house, knocking on doors at 2 a.m. Someone let her in and then called police. The temperature outside at the time was about 14 degrees below zero, according to the Great Falls Police Department. More

British couple has 'black-and-white twins' twice

A mixed-race British couple has defied the odds — twice — by producing two sets of twins in which one sibling appears to be black and the other white.

Dean Durrant's newborn daughter Miya has dark skin like him. Twin sister Leah has fair skin like her blue-eyed, red-haired mother, Alison Spooner.

Their older siblings Lauren and Hayleigh, born in 2001, also have strikingly different skin tones and eye colors.

Both sets of twins are fraternal rather than identical, meaning they are the product of two separately fertilized eggs, so it is not unusual that they don't look alike. Miya's skin color was more influenced by her father's genes, while Leah takes after her mother. More

Man Says Wife Was Accidentally Shot During Sex

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- A Tri-State woman is in critical condition Wednesday after police say her husband shot her while they were having sex.

Timothy Havens, 38, told Springfield police he was reaching for something on the nightstand when the pistol went off, hitting his estranged wife Carolyn in the upper chest.

Carolyn Havens, 42, is being treated at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. More

Woman deafened by passionate kiss

A young lady lost her hearing after a passionate kiss from her boyfriend in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The 20-something girl reported to hospital completely deaf in her left ear soon after the painful pucker.

Dr Li, an ear specialist, from Zhuhai Second People's Hospital, said the woman's hearing would likely return to normal after about two months. More

For Better or Worse, Sex in Space Is Inevitable

Weddings in space could be right around the corner, and experts figure the inevitable cosmic consummation will be just around the next corner.

The Japanese firm First Advantage and the U.S.-based private spaceflight firm Rocketplane Global, Inc., announced last week they will host weddings in space for about $2.3 million apiece.

For all we know, sex in space has already taken place. But NASA officials aren't talking about that much.

Nobody claims to know whether "it" has happened already in space.

"We don't study sexuality in space, and we don't have any studies ongoing with that," said NASA spokesman Bill Jeffs of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If that's your specific topic, there's nothing to discuss," he added, referring to "sex in space." More

'Whizzinator' makers to plead guilty

The owners of the company that makes the Whizzinator, a prosthetic penis used to mask illegal drug use, were charged yesterday in federal court with conspiracy to defraud the government and are expected to plead guilty.

Gerald Wills, the president of Puck Technology, based in Signal Hill, Calif., and Robert D. Catalano, the vice president, are charged in a 19-page criminal information of conspiracy for selling two different products that mask illegal substances in a user's urine.

The products, the Whizzinator and Number 1, are sold through the company's Web sites.

As part of the case, the government is moving for forfeiture of all of the company's assets, as well as its Internet domain names. More

Butt Bandit Grabbed For Greasy Graffiti

Graffiti has all forms, some of which is labeled art, but residents of the small Nebraska town of Valentine likely aren’t in love with the displays left by a man who has been tagged the “Butt Bandit”. In fact, it has to be one of the weirdest cases in the little town’s history, perhaps that of the whole state.

Police in the town had been on the lookout for the “Butt Bandit”, a man who had been visiting businesses during the nighttime hours during the spring and summer months, pressing his naked rear end or groin against storefront windows, churches and even schools after greasing up with petroleum jelly or lotion, leaving graphic images. More

Responders Accused of Molesting Patients in Meat Wagon

They answer the call 24-7, often risking their own safety to rescue the sick and injured and rush them to the hospital. But some paramedics have been more predator than hero.

Over the past 18 months, at least 129 ambulance attendants across the U.S. have been accused of sex-related crimes on duty or off, an investigation found. Some of them molested patients in the back of an ambulance.

"It's a dream job for a sexual predator," said Greg Kafoury, a Portland, Ore., lawyer who represents three women who were groped by a paramedic. "Everything is there: Women who are incapacitated, so they're hugely distracted. Medical cover to put your hands in places where, in any other context, a predator would be immediately recognized as such." More

Man loses appeal over cartoon porn based on The Simpsons

CARTOON characters are people too, a judge has ruled in the case of a man convicted over cartoons based on The Simpsons, in which children are shown having sex.

In the New South Wales Supreme Court today, Justice Michael Adams ruled that a fictional cartoon character was a "person" within the meaning of the relevant state and commonwealth laws.

Alan John McEwen was appealing his February conviction for possessing child pornography and using his computer to access child pornography.

"The alleged pornography comprised a series of cartoons depicting figures modelled on members of the television animated series The Simpsons," the judge said. More

El Caganer: (S)catalonia's Fecal Christmas Festivities

El Caganer, a rather strange figure, has been a characteristic of Nativity scenes all over Catalonia for many years. No self- respecting Catalan Bethlehem scene would be complete without him!

Nowadays he comes in many shapes and forms, from monks to shepherds, Barcelona or Madrid football players to famous film stars - all performing the exact same action - defecating. That's right! They are actually squatting down, with their trousers round their knees, having a bowel movement!

Although an integral and essential part of the Nativity scene, this colourful character is often difficult to spot. He is usually to be found in an ''outlying'' area - behind a suitably placed bush, for example - and not actually centre stage with the infant Jesus himself! Traditionally he was made of clay, but now he is usually made of longer-lasting plastic. More

'Sexy' MP Kate Ellis offered $30,000 to strip for lads' mag

FEDERAL minister Kate Ellis has been offered $30,000 to strip for a men's magazine.

Zoo Weekly asked the minister for youth and sport to pose, but she rejected the offer today, the magazine said.

"She had a chuckle at the idea but has decided against it,'' her spokesman told Zoo.

The invitation came a few weeks after Ellis, 31, the country's youngest ever federal minister, was voted Australia's "sexiest'' MP by her political peers including nearly 70 federal MPs and senators. More

Health funds billed for brothel sex in New South Wales

HEALTH funds have been paying rebates to members who get massages with a "happy ending" in Sydney brothels a fraud investigation has found.

The sexual services which cost $60 were billed as a massage or as acupuncture and attracted a health fund rebate of $40.

An undercover investigation has resulted in about 80 massage services in Sydney being deregistered by health funds for fraudulent practices.

Four Chinese massage and acupuncture centres, including one in Ryde and another in Paramatta, offered undercover health fund investigators sexual services during a raunchy massage.

Health funds uncovered the practice after chasing up Chinese community newspaper advertisements offering to provide "young attractive masseuse with a health fund rebate". More

Cosmetic surgery addict injects cooking oil into her face

Hang Mioku, now 48, had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28; hooked from the beginning she moved to Japan where she had further operations - mostly to her face.

Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, but she would still look at herself in the mirror and think she was beautiful.

Eventually the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder.

When she returned home to Korea the surgery meant Hang's features had changed so much that her own parents didn't recognise her. More

Teacher charged with unlawful sex with 17-year-old boy

They had sex anywhere they could, police said -- in the parking lots of grocery stores and under a bridge.

The arrest of a Warner Christian Academy teacher, who police say was having sex with one of her 17-year-old students, has unleashed a series of details that reveal a steamy relationship between the teen and the 45-year-old woman.

An eight-page arrest affidavit released by Port Orange police paints a picture of a teacher engaging in a variety of sexual acts with the boy in her car and inside low-budget motels on Ridgewood Avenue and International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach. The documents also detail the sexually charged text messages Cynthia Horvath routinely sent to the high school senior, praising his sexual prowess but also warning him to "keep quiet" about their affair.

Aside from the litany of interviews Port Orange and Daytona Beach detectives conducted with the student and several of his classmates, Port Orange detectives also took a box of keepsakes the boy had saved from his encounters with Horvath. The mementos included black thong underwear, plastic keys from the motels and Horvath's Warner Christian picture identification card. More

Lobster poacher caught with 'bugs' in his pants

Over the years, poachers have done some creative things to hide illegally taken lobsters from game wardens, but one San Diego man takes the all-time Hidden Bug Award.

Binh Quang Chau, 33, of San Diego, who has been cited four times for poaching, figured out a creative way to hide his catch.

Chau was cited two times and arrested once by Department of Fish and Game wardens in a one-month period in 2007 and charged with taking lobsters out of the La Jolla State Marine Conservation Area, closed to all take.

When wardens arrested Chau for the second time, they noticed “odd bulges” in Chau's pants. Chau had wrapped six lobsters individually in newspaper and stuffed them down his drawers. More

Study says the woman in red drives men crazy

If a woman wants to drive the men wild, she might want to dress in red.

Men rated a woman shown in photographs as more sexually attractive if she was wearing red clothing or if she was shown in an image framed by a red border rather than some other colour, U.S. researchers have said.

The study led by psychology professor Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, seemed to confirm red as the colour of romance -- as so many Valentine's Day card makers and lipstick sellers have believed for years.

Although this "red alert" may be a product of human society associating red with love for eons, it also may arise from more primitive biological roots, Elliot said. More

Teen Charged With Sending Nude Pics of Herself

A 15-year-old Ohio girl faces felony charges and may have to register as a sex offender for allegedly taking nude photos of herself and sending them to her high school classmates. The teen is now under house arrest and her cellular phone has been confiscated.

The girl, whose name has not been released, was arrested last week and charged in juvenile court with possessing criminal tools and the illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, said Licking County, Ohio, prosecutor Ken Oswalt.

Her alleged actions are part of what some in law enforcement say is a growing problem around the country. More

Malaysian man gets nut stuck around penis

KUALA LUMPUR -- A Malaysian welder had to have a nut removed from around his penis after an attempt to lengthen it before he gets engaged next week went embarrassingly wrong, a news report said Sunday.

The nut got stuck on his penis following an erection, the Star newspaper said, forcing him to seek help at a hospital in southern Johor state.

Staff from the Sultanah Aminah hospital had to drain some blood from the penis and cut away a top layer of skin before the object could be removed, the newspaper said.

It said the fire and rescue department were also involved in trying to remove the nut from the unnamed welder, who is in his 20s and hoped the nut would weigh down his penis to make it longer. More

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk

You could one day enjoy a Triple Nipple shake, or a Mint Hooter parfait, if PETA has its way.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says. More

Ex-teacher says middle schooler was a man to her

Omaha, NB -- A former math teacher sentenced to federal prison for a sex crime with a minor says the age of the 13-year-old schoolboy she fled with to Mexico didn't matter to her.

"We didn't see age anymore. ... In my mind he quit being a teenage boy. ... to me, he was a man," Kelsey Peterson said in a taped interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" aired Wednesday.

Peterson, 26, was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison and five years of supervised release. She also must register as a sex offender. She pleaded guilty in July to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex.

Peterson was the boy's sixth-grade math teacher at Lexington Middle School in south-central Nebraska during the 2005-06 school year and started having sex with him in November 2006, according to court documents.

The pair disappeared in October, soon after the district's superintendent confronted Peterson about allegations of an inappropriate relationship with the boy. More

Man charged with using webcam to spy on women

A student has been charged with using malware to secretly film women using their own laptop webcams.

Craig Matthew Feigin, 23, has been charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services after he installed two programs on the computer of a woman living in Gainesville, Florida.

Police say that Feigin used the code to take videos of Marisel Garcia and others in various states of undress and from them amassed a 20,000 picture collection and stored it on a server in Eastern Europe. It is not known if he sold any of the material.

The woman had taken her computer to Feigin, a student at the University of Florida, because it had been running slowly and he was known to be good with computers. However, after she got the laptop back she started to notice it behaving oddly. The built-in webcam began activating automatically and she noticed the battery was running down more quickly. She took the computer to another friend who found the software and they went to the police. More

Man Chooses "I Was Stupid" Sign Instead of Jail Time

A judge gives a man a choice: Spend time in jail or hold a sign saying "I was stupid." He decided he'll hold the sign.

We talked to the judge known for his strange sentences. Judge Paul Lenz says over the years, he's handed out 20 or so similar sentences. But, he says for the most part, the criminals pass and choose to sit out their sentences rather than face public humiliation.

They read "I was stupid," "I’m a thief," and "I stole from the families of the dead."

They're all options to reduce jail time.

"It's something for them to think about," Lenz says. "Even if they don't choose to do it, they have to think about it because they have to think about whether they'll select the option. That means they'll think more about the consequences." More

'Stone Nudes' who rock climb completely naked

It is a breathtaking - and death-defying feat - which redefines the term extreme sport.

Battling both gravity and the elements, the climber claws her way up a granite boulder by just her fingertips.

For most, the lack of ropes and safety equipment would be a perilous step too far.

But this woman has gone even further and abandoned her clothes to take part in the new sport of naked rock climbing. More

Sex, Drugs And Oil

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Who would have thought the sleepy Interior Department, with the dull task of managing federal land, would produce an office with the culture of an out-of-control frat house?

And yet. A report issued Sept. 10 by the department's inspector general accuses employees in the department's Denver Minerals Management Service of a litany of ethical violations, including drug abuse and engaging in sexual relationships with oil company employees.

The report was instantly appropriated as a political weapon in Congress' heated debate over expanded offshore drilling. The report says, "we learned that some RIK employees frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relations with oil and gas company representatives." More

McCain offers up wife in topless contest

Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans who turned out to see Barack Obama last month.

If there were any Obama supporters to be found in the vast Buffalo Chip campground, they kept quiet.

Indeed, McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

“I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to cheers. “I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.” More

32 protesters arrested outside Disneyland

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth.

The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland's gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute.

Those who were arrested sat in a circle on a busy intersection outside the park holding hands until they were placed in plastic handcuffs and led to two police vans while hundreds of hotel workers cheered and chanted. More

Nudist war on the German-Polish border

On the one side white bottoms burn in the sun. On the other side conservative swimming trunk-wearers turn up their noses at the naked beachgoers.

Now a heated argument has broken out between the exhibitionist Germans and the prudish Poles.

For the last fifty years sun-loving Germans have been preserving their naturist traditions from Ahlbeck (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) to Swinemünde.

But following the Schengen agreement in December 2007 the fence separating the German and Polish parts of the beach was removed.

Now German nudists are battling the Poles for their freedom to prance around naked in the sun.

Anja, from Poland, who clearly thinks the German nudists are real swines, said: "It's horrible. We would never bathe naked - we are Catholic." More

Police free 26 cheerleaders from elevator

Police and firefighters were called to the University of Texas' Jester Hall to free 26 cheerleaders who had crammed themselves into an elevator.

A group of 14- to 17-year-olds attending Texas Cheer Camp in Austin decided to see how many girls they could squeeze into the elevator around 6 p.m. Tuesday, campus police said. The elevator successfully descended from the fourth floor to the first, but the doors refused to open.

The panicked girls managed to wiggle a few cell phones free to call for help. But it took about 25 minutes before a repairman was able to fix the door, police said. More

Bush Gets Some Ass at the Olympics

Nude blonde, gold stilettos and a Ferrari

A mysterious blonde paid a visit to a petrol station shop in the small eastern German town of Doemitz on Sunday -wearing nothing but a pair of golden stilettos and a thin gold bracelet.

The tall, slender woman strolled into the shop in the town of Doemitz on the warm afternoon and bought cigarettes.

"I wasn't surprised because she's come in naked before -- she's a very nice woman," Swoboda said, adding none of the other customers were bothered. The woman could have faced charges of creating a public disturbance if anyone had complained.

A quick-witted customer did, however, snap pictures of the woman believed to be about 30 years old as she walked back to a waiting Ferrari and climbed into the passenger seat. Several of those photos appeared in the German media on Monday. More

93 Year Old Man Arrested in Prostitution Sting

After the honk got her attention, the woman on the corner sauntered up to the 93-year-old man, opened his car door and asked him what he was looking for.

"I'm looking for you," Frank J. Milio said that afternoon in a parking lot off bustling 14th Street West, where police routinely set up prostitution stings.

The woman, an undercover sheriff's detective posing as a prostitute, asked Milio if he wanted sex and how much money he had. Milio said he wanted to play with the woman and asked her to perform a sexual act on him.

As the woman walked away, sheriff's deputies in black masks pulled up and arrested Milio, who was jailed for 12 hours on a solicitation for prostitution charge. The arrest generated national attention, with late-night TV comedians weighing in at the expense of an old man accused of wanting sex. More

Outsourcing Wombs in India

The midday sun is ferociously hot outside the Akanksha Infertility Clinic, a scuffed concrete building in the small Indian city of Anand. Crammed into a single patch of shade by the gate, a stray cow and a family of beggars — caked so uniformly in dung-colored dust they resemble clay models — wait out the noontime heat.

Inside, the lobby is jammed with barefoot female patients in circus-bright saris. Nurses in white Indian tunics scuttle among them, hollering out names and brandishing medical files. The air smells faintly of sweat and damp cement. On the walls, blurry photos of babies and newspaper clippings celebrate the clinic's raison d'être: "The Cradle of the World" declares one headline. More

Prisoners riot for more sex

The unusual demand was among a long list of gripes which sparked a violent protest yesterday in the Esperanza prison, just outside the capital, Asuncion.

Prisoners seized the director of the prison and several other administration staff as they took over the facility.

They demanded more time to have sex with their wives and girlfriends and an end to mistreatment by prison guards.

Many Paraguayan prisons allow conjugal visits during the day. The rule also applies at Esperanza but clashes with the prisoners' working hours, during which they run small businesses such as clothing factories. More

Call Girls at Nursing Home Fuel Debate in Denmark

When a male resident at Kildegaarden nursing home in Denmark made an indecent sexual proposal to a member of the staff, the home's director, Inger Marie Kristensen, told a nurse to telephone for a prostitute.

``There was a considerable change in his demeanor after the escort girl had paid him a visit,'' Kristensen said in an interview. ``We do this for our clients just as we offer them other services that they need as human beings.''

Kildegaarden, located 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Copenhagen in Skanderborg, has about 100 residents, including victims of Alzheimer's disease and strokes. Nurses arranged visits by call girls three times in the past three years.

While Welfare Minister Karen Jespersen says Denmark's 98 municipalities are free to let nurses call prostitutes, some lawmakers are stepping up efforts to pull women out of the profession, which has been legal in the country since 1999. More

Naked surprise after teacher sacked for saucy shoot

Australia - A primary school teacher sacked for appearing nude in a women's magazine has launched legal action against the Department of Education as parents from the school organise a petition to have her reinstated.

Lynne Tziolas, 24, was called into her principal's office last Friday and told her year-long contract at Narraweena Primary School would be terminated.

"I was told … my actions had breached the code of conduct," said Mrs Tziolas, who appeared with her husband, Antonios, in a Cleo article about sexual habits.

The article, headlined "Buck naked, where couples talk about their sex lives", included a picture of each couple in a naked embrace.

During last Friday's meeting with the principal, Julie Organ, and the local schools director, Maurice Brennan, Mrs Tziolas was issued with a letter."I refer to an article in the magazine Cleo in which your photograph appears accompanied by an article about your personal life," the letter said. More

Texas Man arrested for trying to cash $360 billion check

FORT WORTH, Texas—Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious -- perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off. more stories like this

Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

Fuller said his girlfriend's mother gave him the check to start a record business. But bank employees who contacted the account's owner said the woman told them she did not give him permission to take or cash the check.

In addition to the forgery count, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana. Officers reported finding less than two ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets. More

Hudson drumline teacher admits to sex with girl, 14

A 24-year-old Lufkin man arrested Tuesday for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student had recently taught drumline for the Hudson High School band, said law enforcement and Hudson ISD Superintendent Mary Ann Whiteker Thursday.

Sheriff's deputies booked Clark Lewing into the Angelina County Jail Tuesday morning on a charge of sexual assault with a child — a second-degree felony. He made bail, set at $65,000, the same day, according to jail records.

The girl is not a Hudson High School student, Whiteker said. Angelina County Sheriff's Office investigator Charles Lawrence said the girl took private lessons from Lewing.

When questioned by investigators, Lewing said he had known the girl approximately a year before the two had sex, and he knew how old she was, an arrest affidavit stated. The girl told investigators she wanted to have sex with Lewing and did not want to file charges, the report stated. More

Penis theft panic hits city

KINSHASA - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure. More

Teacher accused of tampering to hide alleged affair

GOLDEN, CO — A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted a former Jefferson County teacher and coach on a charge of tampering/destruction of physical evidence.

Nicole Marie Sirbu, 29, was a teacher at Stony Creek Elementary School and a coach for the combined Columbine and Chatfield high school pole-vaulting team from Sept. 1, 2006, until Oct. 1, 2007.

On Sept. 26, 2007, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office began investigating an allegation that Sirbu had "inappropriate sexual contact" with a 17-year-old Columbine student who was on the pole-vaulting team.

Sirbu had exchanged numerous e-mails with the student using her work e-mail address and her work laptop, investigators said. More

Masturbation May Prevent Prostate Cancer

Frequent masturbation may help men cut their risk of contracting prostate cancer, according to Australian researchers. It is believed that carcinogens may build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly, BBC News reported in 2003. The researchers surveyed more than 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer, and 1,250 men who had not. They found that men who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to get cancer. Men who ejaculated more than five times each week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because of the higher risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could in turn raise the risk of cancer.

"Had we been able to remove ejaculations associated with sexual intercourse, there should have been an even stronger protective effect of ejaculations," Graham Giles of the Cancer Council Victoria, who led the researchers, said in the article. More

'Squirrelman' to leave his tree for an RV

SEATTLE, WA -- Facing imminent eviction from his Eastlake treehouse, David "Squirrelman" Csaky got a little good news Tuesday -- then he got a little more.

Seattle city officials, facing growing public criticism, granted the 52-year-old homeless man a 10-day reprieve, replacing an earlier notice that would have forced him to leave his hand-cobbled treehouse Wednesday.

Then a group of Csaky's Eastlake neighbors made a deal to get him a deeply discounted RV to stay in.

"I'm overwhelmed," Csaky, 52, said of the response and the new shelter. "I started crying when they told me."

The new eviction notice -- which had a typo mistakenly giving Csaky until July to move out -- allows Csaky until April 18 to leave the vacant lot where over two years he built an elaborate, 300-square-foot platform about 30 feet above the ground. More

3 Female Teachers Charged With Having Sex With Students

TAMPA, Fla. -- In the past two weeks, three female teachers have been arrested in the Tampa, Fla., area, accused of having sex with male students.

First came the arrest of a middle school math teacher, Stephanie Ragusa, 28. She was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old, authorities said. Investigators monitored phone calls between teacher and student in which Ragusa allegedly acknowledged having sex with the boy.

Last Thursday, high school honors English teacher Mary Jo Spack, 45, also was arrested. She is accused of meeting a 17- and an 18-year-old student at a liquor store and leading them to a motel room, where more students allegedly joined the party. Spack was reportedly overheard having sex with one teen in the shower, police said.

"I just can't believe it's happening," said one unidentified Tampa-area parent. "I don't know what to think, or what's going through their heads."

And on Monday night, substitute teacher Lisa Marinelli, 40, a married mother of two, was arrested by sheriff's deputies and charged with unlawful sex with a minor. The 17-year-old victim told detectives he had sex with Marinelli 10 times. Authorities said they believe the boy.. More

Australian man fathers a baby with daughter

CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian man and his adult daughter went public about their relationship after having a baby together, as new revelations emerged on Monday that a previous child of the couple died a few days after birth.

John Deaves, 61, and his daughter Jenny, 39, have a 9-month-old daughter but have been banned from having sex after a court convicted the pair on two counts of incest, placing them both on a three-year good behavior bond.

"The couple are being monitored by the relevant authorities," a South Australia state police spokesman told Reuters on Monday. More

Polygamist compound raided

Houston, TX- State troopers sealed off a polygamist compound in a remote stretch of Texas on Friday, and child welfare officials removed 52 girls after a complaint that a 16-year-old had been physically and sexually abused, authorities said.

The investigation at the YFZ Ranch - a walled-off complex just outside the town of Eldorado that is anchored by a towering white temple - came as welcome news to local officials, who had complained for years about the religious sect hunkered there.

"We know they're violating the law, but someone has to raise their hand and testify, and until that happens we don't have anything," said James C. Doyle, a local justice of the peace who has flown frequently over the compound in his private plane. "Those young girls are so brainwashed, it's hard to know what they'll say." More

Oregon Man Says He's Pregnant

BEND, Ore. -- An Oregon man is five months pregnant, according to a national magazine.

Thomas Beatie, who used to be a woman, appeared in the most recent issue of The Advocate, a magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers.

Beatie wrote the article and it included a picture of him while he was 22 weeks pregnant. According to the story, he went through a sex change, but decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy.

Beatie was able to keep the reproductive organs he was born with. The article said he stopped getting the injections and was able to get pregnant. More

Study: Spanking Can Bring Problems Later

DURHAM, N.H. — New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.

Other studies have shown the link between spanking and physical violence, but Straus said his research is the first to show a link between corporal punishment and sexual behavior.

Straus, co-director of UNH's Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they'd ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they'd been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex. More

Official Opposes Pamela Rogers' Parole

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A parole official is opposing release for a former teacher with six years left on her prison sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old male student in Warren County.

Convicted sex offender Pamela Rogers got her first shot at parole at a hearing on Wednesday. She has been an inmate at a Nashville women’s prison since 2006.

Rogers, 30, is serving a 10-year sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old boy while she was a teacher at Centertown Elementary School in Warren County.

Rogers was first arrested in February 2005 and pleaded no contest to charges of having sexual intercourse and oral sex with the student. She served six months in jail and got a lengthy probation on those charges under the condition that she not contact the student or his family or use the Internet. However, she soon she sent the boy what the judge described as "lewd" videos and pictures of herself nude and engaged in sex and text messages. More

Middle school muffles intentional flatulence

CAMDEN, ME - The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition for flatulence is brief: "flatus expelled through the anus." And while it's a natural bodily function, it seems some Camden-Rockport Middle School eighth-grade boys are taking it to new heights and allegedly making a game of seeing who can expel the loudest and grossest flatus.

According to this week's "Fire Cracker" newsletter though, an informal eighth-grade publication, the joke's on the boys as the penalty for "intentional farting" is now a detention.

"Strange, but true, thanks to a bunch of 8th grade boys, intentional farting has been banned from CRMS," the newsletter said. "It started out as a funny joke and eventually turned into a game. This is the first rule at CRMS that prevents the use of natural bodily functions. The penalty for intentional farting is a detention, so keep it to yourself!" More

Former Moon area teacher to stand trial in sex case

The case of a former Moon Area teacher who is charged with having sex with a 14-year-old student is headed to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Beth Ann Chester, 26, yesterday waived her right to a preliminary hearing before District Judge Mary P. Murray in Coraopolis.

At the hearing, prosecutors withdrew three counts of sexual abuse of children, but added five other charges, including one count each of statutory sexual assault, indecent deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Mrs. Chester, who was a ninth-grade health and physical education teacher, sent the boy nude photos of herself and lurid text messages about his body, according to police. Police said she later confessed to having a sexual encounter with the boy." More

NYPD Officer Told Teen Sex Was Part Of Obedience Oath

MIDDLETOWN—A New York City cop who allegedly sexually abused two teenage girls, telling them it was part of their initiation as students of his martial arts school, has been charged with second and third degree rape.

Trent Young, 39, of Middletown, with NYPD for nine years, was arrested at his Middletown home where police say some of the abuse occurred in addition to his karate school, the Iron Tiger Martial Arts Center in West Milford, NJ.

According to police, when one of his 80 students, a 14-year-old girl, reached the green-belt level of training at the martial arts school in December 2006, Young allegedly told her that she had to remove her clothing in order to keep with the oath to her dojo. Police said that Young then molested the girl.

It’s alleged that between December 2006, he engaged in a sexual relationship with the girl, having sex with her between 20 and 40 times until October when police began investigating. During the course of that investigation, police learned that Young had allegedly tried the same thing with a second teenager but the girl had refused to undress for Young. More

'Weekend at Bernie's' Check Scam Foiled

NEW YORK - There are few crimes that manage to surprise police, but this is one of them. Like something out of a bad movie, two men are accused of pretending their dead friend was alive in order to get his money.

To many, $355 may not seem like much, but to two 65-year-old friends it was enough motivation to put their dead friend in a chair and wheel him down to the Pay-O-Matic in Hell's Kitchen to cash his social security check.

Regardless of the two reitrement-age friend's inspiration for doing what they are accused of, witnesses say they could have used some Hollywood help in the makeup department.

"He was sitting in the chair with his head in the back of the chair," witness Victor Rodriguez said. "From where I was looking he appeared to be dead." More

Florida teacher charged with having sex with student

An Osceola County teacher was arrested on sex charges Friday after deputies said she had sexual relations with an underage former student.

Deputies began investigating Narcoossee Community School Sarah Elizabeth Joel, 31, Friday morning, after a Harmony High School teacher told deputies that one of her students was suspected of having sex with his former teacher, according to a sheriff's charging affidavit.

During a tape-recorded interview, the student told an investigator that he and Joel stayed in touch after last school year and he became a friend of her family, the report states. When he called Joel to talk about his problems, Joel would pick him up and take him to her home.

"One thing led to another," the teen told investigators. He said the encounters took place at Joel's St. Cloud home during September, when he was 15. More

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