"The wife told authorities her husband did not speak to her for eight days even though she tried to speak to him without realizing he was dead," Notimex said. A preliminary investigation suggested Sanchez may have died of alcohol poisoning, Notimex said. Margarita Sanchez was due to be examined by mental health specialists.
Meanwhile, Maddox, who runs an Internet-based doll business
called "Backwoods Beauties," claims Amundson tried to dye
Barbie's hair from ruby red to midnight black and that is what
caused it to fall out.
According to court documents, the doll in question is a
"Color Magic" Barbie, which was sold by Mattel Inc. She complained. But the lawsuit said Maddox refused to
refund the $1,800, accused her of tampering with the doll and
posted a message on her Internet site saying Amundson, who also
collects Smurfs and ladies' accessories, had "devalued" her
Barbie.
"She told me the doll's hair was falling out. I said, 'No
way," Maddox told the Baltimore Sun.
Sold as collectibles, original Barbie dolls have fetched as
much as $10,000. The Sun, which originally reported the story,
noted Forbes magazine's August advice to collectors that demand
for Beanie Babies has begun to cool and that Barbie dolls
represented better investments.
The Gazeta Shqiptare newspaper said the shooting took place
in the northern town of Mamurras on September 30.
Miloku had pledged to avenge the murder of her father in
Greece three months earlier, for which her family blamed Fufi.
Guns are widely available in Albania, where the tradition of
blood feud has undergone a renaissance since the collapse of
communism in 1990, especially in lawless northern areas.
A revenge code dating from the Middle Ages, known as the
Kanun, provides for revenge to be carried out by a male relative
of the victim but Miloku, as the eldest in her family,
apparently decided to act herself.
Gazeta Shqiptare said the 13-year-old girl had been elated
after killing Fufi but was horrified to learn that she had also
shot his six-year-old son, who had been playing in the garden of
his house.
The girl has not been arrested because she is a minor but
she, her mother and three younger brothers have gone into
hiding, fearing retaliation from Fufi's family.
"She is the victim of a code as old as the Albanians
themselves," the newspaper quoted police chief Fran Ndoi as
saying.
"I often thought my life would have been a lot easier if I
had had another name," 60-year-old Adolf Hittler told the Welt
am Sonntag newspaper.
"No one ever believed that my name is Adolf Hittler. I get
anonymous calls in the middle of the night from people who say
'Heil Hitler' or 'We have someone here for the gas chamber'," he
said. "But I never changed it because I am proud of my parents."
Hittler was attending a conference "for people with infamous
names" in Braunau, an Austrian town just across border from
Germany and the birthplace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
He said the name once cost him a construction job at a dam
project in Austria. An engineer asked the workers what their
names were.
"The first in line answered 'Tony Sailer', the same as the
famous skier," Hittler said. "The next answered 'Andreas Hofer',
the same name as the Austrian freedom fighter. The engineer was
growing annoyed because he thought they were pulling his leg.
"And when he got to me I tried to warn him about my name,
but when I said 'I'm Adolf Hittler' he threw us all out."
Hittler said his son had adopted his wife's surname.
"I accepted that but it still hurt me a little bit," Hittler
said.
"It's my responsibility that this sort of hysteria is
avoided and the public at large are protected," Superintendent
Michael McGarry said after police called on bomb experts,
navigation officials and defence forces to help work out the
meaning of the objects found in Waterford city early on Monday.
McGarry said in a statement that he was informing state
prosecutors about the case and that he was "terribly annoyed".
Clancy's group named the artist as Paul Gregg, who police
said was a U.S. native resident in Ireland for four years.
The hoax caught the imagination of the whole country -- and
media -- who have been speculating wildly about the parachutes
and their one metre (three feet) long cylinders holding test
tubes filled with silt and water.
This was exactly what the artists had in mind -- though they
had not expected a mini security alert.
Clancy said the aim of the action was ... "to stimulate
debate and discussion about what art is intended to do."
"When people go into a gallery they expect to have all the
answers provided. We are very pleased with the outcome of this.
Waterford has become a centre of debate," Clancy said.
However, she said the group had become "seriously concerned"
on hearing police -- accustomed to security alerts because of
the Northern Irish conflict -- had called out a bomb disposal
unit.
"We hadn't envisaged that scenario. The irony is the artist
drove around at 4 a.m. and unloaded the things all over the
city, but no one came forward," she said.
"They were constructed out of metal, string and see-through
test tubes. They were meant to look like scientific objects, not
paramilitary paraphernalia," she added.
Police at Waterford have been inundated with calls since
Monday and were not amused, despite an apology from the art
group and a tribute from Clancy for their vigilance.
"I've the greatest headache a man ever had," grumbled
Sergeant David Sheehan.
The models, usually students in their 20s, wear nothing but
see-through veils over their heads and a thin floral decoration
between their legs. They are required to lie motionless on the
table in the extra warm room.
The sushi is spread out all over their bodies. Bodyguards
dressed as samurai warriors make sure nothing gets out of hand.
"They aren't entirely naked," wrote Bild. "Caviare is
stuffed into their belly buttons, sword fish sushi is stuck near
their armpits and between their legs is raw tuna fish sushi
awaiting the hungry guests."
"It's a great way to earn some pocket money," a model named
Kim told the newspaper, saying she could earn up to 800 marks
per night.
Black-clad killers have gone on a murder spree in recent
months in Banyuwangi, the main departure point for ferries to the
holiday island of Bali, and in surrounding areas.
The victims -- mostly Moslem clerics or alleged practitioners
of black magic -- were often chopped into pieces. The bodies of
some victims were tied into bundles and dangled from trees, while
others were thrown into mosques.
Police officials said that the death toll had reached 104,
but local Moslem leaders put the number of deaths at 163.
"Data we have gathered from our local group heads show that
the number of victims is 163," said Hashim Muzadi, provincial
leader of Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU). NU members have been particular targets of the
killings.
No motive for the killings has emerged, and police and army
officials have been divided in pointing the finger of blame.
Regional police officials say four members of the military
were being interrogated in connection with the killings, but East
Java's military commander on Thursday denied claims the armed
forces were involved.
Indonesia's police chief, Lieutenant-General Roesmanhadi has
said members of Indonesia's banned communist party were believed
to be involved. Communists have long been used as bogey-men by
the Indonesian regime, regularly blamed for unrest or criticism.
One military source has speculated the killings were a
deliberate attempt to create tension between the NU and
supporters of opposition figurehead Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is
holding a congress in Bali.
Thousands of Megawati supporters made their way through
Banyuwangi en route to the congress this week but no trouble was
reported.
NU leader Abdurrahman Wahid said he hoped the army would soon
get to the bottom of the killings. Armed forces chief General
Wiranto pledged this week to investigate the wave of murders.
"We have asked local security forces to take firm action
against the killers," he told Reuters.
"I'm optimistic that the armed forces will not break its
promise to investigate the subject."
Asked about a motive for the killings, he said the subject
was "very complicated"...
Bus operators in Kenya are quick to paint their vehicles to
keep up with current thinking -- sometimes resorting to puns
that would be considered tasteless elsewhere.
One bus named "Lady Di" was swiftly renamed "Lady Die" after
the Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris last
year.
A spokeswoman for the Kenedy (eds: correct) County
Sheriff's Department said the conductor sounded the train's
horn several times, but failed to rouse the sleepers.
Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange
said the victims likely slept on the tracks in the belief they
would be safe from snakes.
"In south Texas, it's not unusual for people to sleep on
the tracks on the theory that snakes won't cross the track and
bite you," she said.
"It's a myth," Davis said. "I've seen many large
rattlesnakes cut in half with one half on one side of the
tracks and one half on the other. So they obviously do cross
over the tracks."
Davis said there have been cases of people surviving
similar incidents because trains have passed over their
sleeping bodies between the rails without actually hitting
them.
The freight train was rolling through ranchland on its way
from Houston to Brownsville at about 3:15 a.m. CDT (4:15 a.m.
EDT) when it struck the victims. The incident took place about
28 miles (45 km) south of Sarita, near the tiny town of Norias,
Texas.
Had the men gone north another mile or so, they would have
arrived at a park where they could have rested without danger,
the sheriff's spokeswoman said.
The website includes seven cases with information that would
be available to a pathologist carrying out a real examination to
establish the cause of death.
Students can click and get the patient's history, such as
his age, symptoms, what drugs he had been taking and any other
relevant information. A dictonary also explains any unfamiliar
medical terms and drugs.
There are also investigations and findings of examinations.
"The student, at any time, can guess the cause of death but
we presume they will go as far as the autopsy," said West.
To discourage voyeurs whole body images and faces are not
used. Each case includes a body outline which students can use
to choose which part of the anatomy they want to examine.
West said some people might find the experience unpleasant
but it is tame compared with some Internet images. "The images
are not too bad. I don't think anyone will be grossly offended,"
he added.
By clicking on the specific body part -- lung, body, heart,
head -- students can examine tissue from that area. Then they
can go to the causes of death list.
"When they click to select the cause of death there will be
a list which includes the right one, some near misses and some
red herrings," West said.
"If they choose something completely wrong they will get a
slight rebuke for being so far away....Students are told if they
get the right answer."
The idea for the Internet site came from a student who
approached members of the pathology department about a way to
use his computing skills to improve his knowledge of pathology.
The virtual autopsy is designed for medical undergraduates
in early training but anyone can
try it
Last year, 55 bodies were found in the same place, a dense
stretch of woods on a cliff located northwest of Mount Fuji in
central Japan, the spokesman said.
The place became famous after a notorious suicide guidebook
several years ago named it as an ideal place to commit the deed.
"I can't say for sure why so many killed themselves, but
increasing financial problems due to the poor economy can't be
ruled out completely," the police spokesman said.
About 350 police officers and firefighters participated in a
search of the area on Tuesday in an annual event conducted before
the onset of winter.
The giant bird showed up at the home of Ed and Ann Stuardi
last month, drinking from a bird bath and eating berries in
their yard. They fed it dog food.
Last week the emu began following Ed Stuardi around. Then
it became aggressive, chasing their cats. Stuardi tried to
frighten the bird away by shooting his gun into the air. The
emu just stood there, looking at him forlornly.
By Monday, it was making noises deep in its throat, a
mating call Stuardi failed to recognize as the bird approached
him. Shorter than than the bird, he held it off with a boat
paddle.
On Monday night and Tuesday, the Stuardis cowered inside
their home. Ann Stuardi called the sheriff to beg for help but
was told deputies didn't have the equipment to catch the bird.
That's when Animal Rescue Foundation got involved.
"She pursued him. They had been feeding her, and when
mating season hit, he almost got it. She had her heart set on
this man," said Roberts.
"I've never seen an emu hold hostages," she said. "He
wasn't aware what the bird wanted, or why she was stalking him.
I've never seen one stalk a human with procreation in mind."
Animal Rescue had been looking for the bird since Aug. 22,
when it heard that a man had moved away from the area,
abandoning three emus. The other two birds still have not been
found.
It took several hours for the rescue team to persuade the
bird to get into a horse trailer so it could be taken to a farm
that cares for injured wildlife. Roberts said the emu's only
injury was a broken heart, and it was released into an area
with other emus, including several males.
"Hopefully she will meet another fellow and forget all
about Mr. Stuardi. After all, he is a married man," Roberts
said.
Baltimore schools officials later pronounced the whole
thing a misunderstanding and said Schoonover's suspension order
should have cited her for making an alleged verbal threat.
Schoonover, whose father is a 45-year-old transsexual named
Colleen Harper, stands out at school because she wears
all-black clothing and is a devotee of gloomy "Goth" rock
music, school officials said. Her family says she is also
bisexual.
Harper, who describes herself as a witch as well, told
reporters at the school that this week's incident was only the
latest in a series of encounters in which her daughter had been
taunted and threatened.
Back to the TC home page
Things you thought happened only in the movies, #1
TIRANA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A 13-year-old Albanian girl shot
dead her father's alleged murderer in a revenge shooting in
which the victim's six-year-old son, playing nearby, was also
killed, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"Send best regards to my father," the girl, Entela Miloku,
told Fran Fufi before opening fire on him with a Kalashnikov
rifle which she had concealed in her baby brother's pram.
What's in a name? Adolf Hittler can tell you...
BONN, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Let's face it, if your surname
happens to be Hittler and your parents christen you Adolf, life
isn't going to be easy.
But a retired Austrian truck driver was quoted in a German
newspaper on Sunday as saying he never changed his name out of
respect for his mother and father.
Irish mystery parachutes were artistic hoax
DUBLIN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Mystery orange-and-white
parachutes carrying steel tubes which this week sparked a
security alert in southern Ireland and feverish speculation of
alien or Russian action were in fact the work of Irish artists,
angry police said on Wednesday.
"They didn't fall out of the sky. They came off the back of
a van," Annette Clancy, artistic director at Garter Lane Arts
Centre in Waterford, told Reuters.
Germans asplutter at naked sushi platter
BONN, Oct 8 (Reuters) - A German restaurant has been
attacked as "tasteless" for serving sushi on naked models lying
on top of tables.
Brigitte Vollmer-Schubert, ombudsman for women's issues in
the central city of Hanover, said she was appalled that the
restaurant used naked women as huge "platters" for the Japanese
dish, dubbed "sushi ala Jungfrau (virgin)".
But the restaurant owner was quoted by Bild newspaper as
saying the dish had been a huge hit and the evening-long meal,
costing up to 400 marks ($250) per person, was booked out for
weeks in advance.
Actually, this sort of thing has been going on in Japan for quite
some time. But then, we KNOW they're all a bunch of perverts. :-)
Toll mounts in mystery Indonesia murder spree
SURABAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - More mutilated victims of
mysterious Ninja-style killers have been found in Indonesia's
East Java, bringing the death toll to at least 104, police said
on Friday.
A decapitated corpse was discovered in the town of Jember and
police investigating the killing later opened fire on a group of
suspects, killing at least one, locals said.
A local hospital said one person had died and two others were
being treated after being shot in the stomach.
"We're still investigating this case," Jember police official
Lieutenant Winarto said.
Another mutilated corpse was found dangling from a tree in
the port town of Banyuwangi, the town's police chief said, adding
four other corpses had also been found in the town this week.
"We can't confirm whether the victims were part of the
organised murder," Banyuwangi police chief Ucu Kuspriadi told
Reuters.
German snack bar sold hashish not hamburgers
KIEL, Germany, Oct 9 (Reuters) - German police have closed
down a snack bar in the northern city of Kiel after discovering
the owner was selling hashish instead of hamburgers.
Police said on Friday they had detained the 39-year-old owner
after long-term surveillance of the downtown snack bar revealed
several hundred people were getting drugs there every day.
"During the entire time, food was not sold on a single
occasion," police said in a statement.
"It transpired later that the accused did not even know how
to operate the kitchen equipment," the police said.
Monica Lewinsky spotted on a bus in Kenya
NAIROBI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Monica Lewinsky, the
former White House aide at the centre of a sex scandal with U.S.
President Bill Clinton, has been spotted on the back of a bus in
Kenya.
Kenya's public transport operators traditionally paint their
vehicles with slogans and pictures reflecting popular news
events, and a "Monica Lewinsky" bus is now plying a route from
Nairobi to Eldoret in Rift Valley Province.
The bus bears the name "Monica Lewinsky" on the rear and has
an even bigger sign saying "Bill's gal" on the mud flaps.
It also has a painting of a swimming costume-clad Lewinsky
pouting provocatively.
Six killed while sleeping on Texas railroad track
SARITA, Texas, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Six illegal immigrants
sleeping on railroad tracks in south Texas, possibly to avoid
snakebites, were killed when a Union Pacific freight train ran
over them early on Monday, authorities said.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the crew of the
105-car freight train saw the immigrants, all men, lying asleep
between the rails in a remote and rugged area about 60 miles
(96 km) north of the border city of Brownsville, Texas, but
could not stop the train in time.
"A train that big takes a mile to stop," he said.
Do you take this woman?
MESSINA, Sicily, Oct 13 (Reuters) - A Sicilian bridegroom
took public revenge on his cheating bride at their wedding
ceremony by answering "I don't" when asked if he would take her
to be his lawful wedded wife.
The man had returned from a stag party the night before his
nuptials to discover, unbekownst to them, his fiancee in the
arms of the would-be witness to the marriage.
"It's not me you should be marrying, it's your lover,
sitting in the front row, who's meant to be my witness," Il
Giornale newspaper quoted the groom as saying in the church in
Messina, northwest Sicily.
The couple were not married but the groom invited the
shocked guests to go ahead anyway with the wedding breakfast --
at his expense.
The next one's for Sven -- what IS it about the Swedes and animals? :-)
Swedish police chasing robber in chicken suit
STOCKHOLM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Swedish police were pursuing a
man on Wednesday who tried to rob a post office dressed in a
chicken suit.
Police said the robber, disguised in a yellow chicken outfit
and wielding a baseball bat, failed to steal any money from the
post office in Kalmar, southern Sweden. However, the attacker
smashed windows and seriously upset a female cashier.
"She's now psychologically disturbed by the event and
undergoing treatment," a Kalmar police spokesman told Reuters.
Ice hockey -- Fog halts indoor match
CAEN, France, Oct 14 (AFP) - An ice hockey match in the French
League was halted by fog on Wednesday night -- despite being played
indoors.
The game between Caen and Chamonix was halted because of poor
visibility after only three minutes when the stadium air-conditioning
system malfunctioned and pumped fog from outside into the arena.
Virtual reality autopsy on the Internet
LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Aspiring pathlogists can now hone
their medical skills by performing a virtual reality autopsy on
the Internet.
Instead of a pathologist's knife, medical students can use a
computer mouse to perform the virtual post mortem on the autopsy
website created by staff and students at Leicester University in
central England.
"As far as we know this is the first virtual autopsy
website," Dr Kevin West, a pathologist at the university, said
in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Jamaican soccer players shoot to kill
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A game of soccer to
promote a recent "peace treaty" between two warring Kingston
neighborhoods after months of gang warfare ended in a gunfight
in which three people were killed, police said on Monday.
Teams from rival Tower Hill and Penwood communities met in
a match on Sunday with bottles of beer as the prize for the
winner.
"Things started to go wrong when one side scored early and
started drinking the beer in celebration before the match had
ended," a police spokesman said.
The ensuing argument involving players and supporters
erupted into gunfire. One Tower Hill player and two from
Penwood were killed.
Infamous Japan suicide spot sets dismal record
TOKYO, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Japanese police on Tuesday reported
finding three people hanged in a thickly wooded area near famed
Mount Fuji, bringing to a record 58 the number of apparent
suicides there this year.
In addition to the confirmed deaths, around 40 people were
believed to have attempted suicide in the forest this year, a
police spokesman told Reuters.
Most of the incidents involved hanging.
Amorous emu fails to get her man
MOBILE, Ala., Oct 22 (Reuters) - A 6-foot-tall, 150-pound
(1.8 metre, 68 kg) emu that fell head over heels in love with
an Alabama man and stalked him for days was turned loose
Thursday on a farm populated by her own species.
"It was mating season and she took a fond liking to him,"
Diane Roberts, director of the Mobile, Alabama, Animal Rescue
Foundation, told Reuters. "He had to ward her off with a boat
paddle. She was absolutely intent that this was her mate."
Baltimore school suspends 15-year-old "witch"
BALTIMORE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A 15-year-old girl who claims
to be a witch was suspended from school this week after another
girl accused the high-school freshman of casting a spell on
her, school officials said on Thursday.
Jamie Schoonover, who has been taunted by fellow classmates
for her overt adherence to the neopagan Wicca religion, was
sent home for the day after an incident that occurred outside
Baltimore's Southwestern High School on Tuesday morning.
The other girl heard from a third student that Schoonover
had put a "hex" on her. She started crying and ran to school
administrators, who later held a two-hour meeting with both
girls and their families.
Schoonover's suspension slip cited her for "casting a spell
on a student."
Things you thought only happened in the movies, #2
BANGKOK - A woman stood up in court in central Thailand and
shot dead a man accused of murdering her son.
Wealthy businesswoman Srisombat Pakdiwong said Natthopol
Virayutsilp provoked her as he arrived to be tried at the court
in Lop Buri, a provincial town north of Bangkok.
So she pulled out a Beretta pistol and shot him four times.
"I asked him whether he was the man who killed my son. He
said he was and threatened to get me next," The Nation newspaper
quoted Srisombat as saying. "I was suddenly overcome with anger
and shot him."
Dane takes dead father on last motorcycle ride
COPENHAGEN, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A Danish man bade his dead
father farewell by taking his corpse for a motorcycle ride at
the weekend, stopping at a bar for beer and a cigar.
Flemming Pedersen, 37, asked the staff at the hospital where
his 86-year-old father died if he could be left alone with him
for a while, the tabloid BT reported on Monday.
Pederson dressed the rigid corpse in leather gear, boots, a
helmet and dark sunglasses and walked it out of the hospital.
Then he strapped the body to the seat of his Harley Davidson
with elastic straps and drove around metropolitan Copenhagen for
three hours, visiting his father's favourite spots.
He stopped at a kerbside bar, where he bought two beers and
stuck a lit cigar between his dead father's lips.
Pedersen said he had taken the last ride with his father to
have a chat with him and that he felt good about it afterwards.
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