Men can wear skirts to Oxford University exams

Oxford University has rewritten the laws governing its strict academic dress code following concerns that they were unfair towards transgender students

Under the new regulations, students taking exams or attending formal occasions will no longer have to wear ceremonial clothing that is specific to their gender. It will mean men will be able to sit tests in skirts and stockings and women will have the option of wearing suits and bow ties. The new laws, which will come into force next week, comes after a motion put forward the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc) was passed by the student union...

Dharwad: While the HDMC continues waver on its decision to cull stray pigs in the twin cities, yet another hapless child in Dharwad has become a victim of pig bite. Four-year-old Jagan Anigol suffered injuries on Friday morning when a pig attacked him and bit his genitals when he was responding to nature's call.

The boy was initially taken to the district civil hospital where doctors after providing first aid sent him to KIMS hospital in Hubli. Jagan was attending nature's call in front of his house in Medar galli of Haveripet in ward no. 6 of Dharwad when he was attacked by the pig. It is common to see children urinating by the roadside in the absence of adequate toilet facilities in the old Dharwad area. The incident occurred around 7.30pm. When the boy raised an alarm his parents - who work as masons - took him to the hospital.

Kapil Shirahatti, Jagan's relative alleged that the doctors at KIMS attended to the boy two hours after reaching the hospital. They have operated on him and the boy is said to be out of danger. The menace of pigs and stray dogs has been haunting the citizens of Hubli and Dharwad for several years now. Last week a six-year-old boy in Hubli was injured in a pig attack. The decision of HDMC to eliminate pigs by shooting them down has remained on paper. The pig owners have been told to move pigs off the city limits, but there is no effective enforcement of this directive.
French police were amazed that the little boy managed to overpower two officers 

Two French police officers needed medical attention after being attacked by an eight-year-old boy armed with a hammer and a tear gas canister [...] A Nantes police spokesman said the boy "was highly aggressive and took our officers completely by surprise. "We have no idea where he got the tear gas bomb from, but both men needed hospital treatment for serious irritation of their eyes and bruises from hammer blows. The boy will be reported to social services but at the age of eight he is too young to be prosecuted".
Hard Evidence

This is exhibit number one in a Russian court case - the severed manhood of an alleged serial rapist which was bitten off by one of his victims when he tried to force her to have oral sex. Sauna boss Svetlana Serafina, 25, was attacked in in Novosibirsk, Russia, by Dmitry Zubarev, 29, when he turned up pretending to be a customer.

 She told the court: "It was a quite day and I'd closed my eyes for a short doze behind the counter, next thing I know I felt a blow to my head. I opened my eyes and saw this man standing in front of me, his teeth were clenched and he had his hands in fists, and he started punching me, then he kicked me to the ground when I tried to flee. He was tearing at my clothes and then he pulled down his trousers and put his penis in my mouth, that was when I bit down as hard as I could, and didn't let go".

She said the man had tried to pull away but she had held on, ripping off his private parts. The last thing she remembered was seeing him running out of the store screaming before she passed out. The unconscious woman was found by another client with the severed member nearby. Zuberev, who had run to a nearby hospital was arrested a short while later where doctors suspicious of his story had already called police.

Police spokesman Vladislav Arsibekov told the court that the missing member had been deemed impossible to reattach, and had been placed in a box to be kept at police HQ until Zuberev’s trial. He was convicted of the attack on Svetlana and after the court heard that he also had previous convictions for sex attacks - he was jailed for life.
Proud Patrick Sloan, 60, has a brand new son. And a new grandson. And a new great-grandson. And the three babies arrived in the space of just three months. First, Patrick became a dad for the fourth time. His second wife Joanne, 39, had little Ethan on March 14. Then, in June, Patrick’s grand-daughter Fern, 18, presented him with his first great-grandchild, Mason. And 12 days after Fern gave birth, it was her mum Odette’s turn to head for the delivery room. She too produced a healthy baby boy, Leonard. So Ethan is Mason’s great-uncle, Fern has a new uncle as well as a new son, and Odette is celebrating the arrival of a son, a grandson and a half-brother.
A man charged with starting a fire on a US nuclear submarine faces up to life imprisonment if found guilty. 


The fire on board USS Miami caused millions of dollars' worth of damage. A civilian maintenance worker who has been charged with setting fire to a nuclear-powered submarine was suffering from anxiety and wanted to leave work early, according to a US Navy investigation. Casey James Fury was taken into custody last Friday and was later charged with arson in connection with the fire on board the USS Miami on May 23 while it was in a dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine. It caused an estimated $400m (£258m) in damage to the Los Angeles Class attack submarine, which was undergoing repairs and retrofitting. Fury is also charged with setting a second, smaller fire on June 16. The painter and sandblaster denied involvement in the first fire until he was given a lie detector test last Friday, according to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. When he was told some of his statements registered untrue, Fury finally admitted his involvement. He said he had begun to get anxious at around 5.30pm and left the torpedo room where he was working with his cigarettes and lighter. He saw a bag of rags in the corner of a room in the sub and allegedly set them on fire with alcohol wipes and his lighter. "The reason he set the fire was in order to get out of work," NCIS special agent Jeremy Gauthier said. He added that Fury told investigators he was taking a variety of medications for anxiety, depression, allergies and insomnia at the time of the first incident. Fury also said he was anxious about a text conversation with his former girlfriend and wanted to leave work when he set the second blaze. If convicted, the 23-year-old faces up to life in prison.
Stolen Member 

Police are looking for the married lovers of suspected Chinese Fei Lin, 41, after four masked men burst into his flat and cut off his penis at Niqiao village near Wenling city, in east China’s Zhejiang province. He told cops he had been asleep and it was around 4am when the men burst into the room and put a bag over his head. He said: "They put something over my head and pulled down my trousers and then they ran off. I was so shocked I didn't feel a thing - then I saw I was bleeding and my penis was gone". Emergency workers and police who searched for the severed organ failed to locate it, and believe it was taken away by the attackers. The injured man, a rural migrant worker in the village, had been accused of affairs with local women and although he denied it police believe that the attack was a revenge assault.

A city in northeastern Ukraine is considering a plan to take on the local pigeons by getting them drunk on wine and deporting them, a local news website reported. The radical measure was proposed to prevent a monument to poet Taras Shevchenko in Sumy from being covered in bird droppings ahead of City Day, Obkom.com.ua said on Monday. “Let’s give them wine-soaked bread and then deport them somewhere where they’ll wake up the next day,” Alexei Movchan, who heads the city branch of the ruling Party of Regions, was cited as saying about the pigeons. He dismissed allegations of animal cruelty by saying that deportation of inebriated birds is practiced in the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra, an Orthodox Christian monastery in the country’s west, the report said. It remained immediately unclear whether the city adopted the plan. Sumy celebrates City Day on September 2.

For nine months, William McKee took the generic version of Propecia, the pills that promise to halt hair loss. But the drug had radical side effects: Instead of becoming a better-looking man, he started becoming a woman, he claims. [...] Among other changes, the 38-year-old software engineer claims, “my shoulders were literally falling into a more feminine position, and my hips were loosening and becoming wider, as on a woman’s body".


William McKee goes by “Mandi” these days; he says a baldness treatment made him a gay cross-dresser. McKee, who says he wasn’t inclined to cross-dress before, began feeling like a woman. He is now only attracted to men. After overcoming depression and separating from his wife of 10 years, McKee goes by “Mandi.” He wears a blond wig, makeup and tight dresses. He plans to get a breast-enhancement job this year, and may undergo sex-change surgery. “It felt like the ‘me’ that I’ve always known was not there any more,” he told The Post.

Propecia inhibits the conversion of testosterone, resulting in increased estrogen. Millions have used it since the 1990s, but it has been linked to sexual problems such as impotence, loss of libido and “genital shrinkage” as well as cognitive impairment, or “brain fog,” which McKee believes he also suffered. Lawsuits filed in 27 states by men who say the wonder drug screwed up their sexuality have been centralized in Brooklyn federal court. A spokesman for Merck, the drug’s maker, said, “No causal relationship has been established between Propecia and persistent sexual side effects.”

McKee, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the father of a 5-year-old son, said he used to be “driven and athletic.” Baldness runs in his family; his hairline began to recede in his 20s. After seeing Propecia ads for years, he ordered a supply in 2008 from an online pharmacy based in India. He paid $99.50, including shipping, for pills of the generic finasteride. He popped one pill a day for nine months. His hair growth was “minimal, if any,” he said, but the feminizing effects were “pronounced”. “People were kidding me about my breasts,” he said. His work suffered, too, he said. His last business, Tampa Bay Interactive, went bust in late 2010.

But McKee can’t join the mass lawsuit because the courts bar those who took the generic versions. In frustration, “Mandi McKee” launched a blog to vent about her life. Brooklyn attorney Marc Grossman, whose firm represents more than 300 former Propecia users, said many had breast growth. He also said animal studies on Propecia showed an increased propensity for homosexuality. Grossman estimates that more than 1,500 Propecia users will come forward but added, “Many men are embarrassed to reveal their problems to anyone, including their doctors, so thousands more will go on living with the condition in private".

A Pakistani policeman in Lahore allegedly shot dead his sister for wearing jeans, officials said on Saturday. Constable Asad Ali was unhappy with his sister Najma Bibi, 22, for wearing what he considered were "men's clothes", especially jeans, officials said. The siblings often quarrelled over the issue and Ali allegedly shot and killed his sister on Friday. A few days ago, Ali had warned his sister that he would kill her if she did not stop wearing jeans and trousers. Subsequently, Najma filed a complaint against her brother at the police station in the residential neighbourhood of Shahdara and sought protection. However, the police took no action against Ali. According to the FIR filed after the crime, Ali followed Najma when she left the house on Friday and allegedly fired at her near Shahdara Morr, killing her instantly. Ali managed to escape and police are conducting raids to nab him, officials said.
Man Hit by Flying Turtle 

A Chinese noodle seller was almost killed by a turtle when it fell from a window of a 45-storey building. Yao Chen was chatting to customers outside his restaurant in Chongqing, southwest China, when the foot-long amphibian fell around 40 feet from a flat above, hitting him on the foot and breaking his big toe. The 34-year-old restaurateur said: "If I had been standing just a fraction more to the left then it would have hit me on the head. The size of it and the speed it was falling at means I probably would have been killed". The turtle, which had crawled out of its cage and over the window ledge of its owner’s sixth floor flat, had to be put down due to its injuries. Mr Yao added: "Customers were telling me to make a soup with it, but I didn’t want any more bad luck. It probably would have poisoned my guests or something."

A rabbit lover has proved she is hopping mad – by changing her name to Bunny. Bingo hall worker Sharon Finegan, 28, runs an animal sanctuary from her home and looks after 15 rabbits. And she is so devoted to her hobby that she has decided to change her name to Bunny Sharon Alice Finegan. Sharon will use her crazy new moniker when she gets hitched to fiance Morgan Green, 36, in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, on September 1. She said: “I’m really looking forward to saying, ‘I, Bunny Sharon Alice Finegan’ in my vows on my wedding day. It should be a lot of fun. It seems the right thing to do as my friends have called me Bunny for a long time. The idea came about when we were feeding the rabbits. Morgan suggested, as a joke, that I should change my name to Bunny as that is his pet name for me. I thought it would be a good idea to do it properly. I love animals but rabbits have always been my very favourite pet so the name Bunny suits me through and through. The hardest part will be changing my official documents but I can’t wait to see my new name on them – especially given what I do with the rabbit sanctuary. You can actually call yourself anything you like, as long as it’s not rude".

Brighton-born Sharon, who lives with Morgan and his daughter Kiah Gallagher, four, in Stenhousemuir, opened her sanctuary last year and runs it as part of the charity Fairly Beloved Rabbit Care. The couple take in abandoned rabbits, nurse them back to health then help the charity find them a new home. She will use the name change to raise cash for the charity. Donations can be given at www.justgiving.com/sharon-finegan

A hotel boss has swapped Bibles in his bedrooms for copies of the raunchy novel Fifty Shades of Grey – and the local vicar is not happy. The Rev Michael Woodcock spoke of his dismay after hearing about the book of choice at the Damson Dene Hotel, Crosthwaite. He said it was ‘a great shame’ to replace the Gideon Bibles at the rural retreat with an explicit, erotic novel.

Hotel manager Wayne Bartholomew said the move to install the steamy bestseller was in response to popular demand. Mr Bartholomew, who starred in Channel 4’s first series of The Hotel, said the book was all people were talking about but many were too shy to buy it. “I thought it would be a special treat for our guests to find it in their bedside cabinet and that includes the men too, They are as desperate to get their hands on a copy as the women".

The Gideon Bible is full of references to sex and violence, although it’s written using more formal language, so James’s book is easier to read. The hotel said the Gideon Bible would remain available at the reception desk. Crosthwaite parish priest Mr Woodcock oversees services at the nearby St Mary’s Parish Church and spoke of his disappointment at the hotel’s move: “It is a great shame that Bibles have been removed from rooms and very inappropriate to have been replaced by an explicit erotic novel. The Bible remains a source of comfort and inspiration that many people do find helpful”.

A Diocesan spokesperson said: “Fifty Shades of Grey is all the rage but is likely to be a passing fad. The Bible is a classic, shaped and reshaped by Jewish and Christian communities over many centuries; it is also an enduring source of comfort to travellers around the world and, we believe, the words of life. It is unclear why anyone would think it appropriate to replace the latter with the former”.
Hundreds of pigeons set to be culled in a town could be used to make pies, a veteran Tory town councillor has claimed. 


Up to 600 pigeons roost in Royston and councillors have branded the massive mess left by the birds a serious menace for residents. Cllr F John Smith, 80, said the dead birds could provide a good source of food. He spoke out as Royston Town Council in Hertfordshire voted to ask business partnership Royston First to kill the pests and crack down on people feeding them. Cllr Smith, who quit as a district councillor in 2010 after 50 years, said: "When you use the word 'cull' it has a very negative effect on people but there is an advantage to this method. "I'm being perfectly serious that pigeon pie is not eaten as often as it used to be - in other words shot pigeons give us a food source. Up to 600 pigeons roost in Royston and councillors have branded the massive mess left by the birds a serious menace for residents. Town mayor Cllr Lindsay Davidson said pedestrians find pavements "risky" because "they are covered in muck". Officials have previously considered avian contraceptives and drafting in killer hawks. Fire gel that would fool birds into thinking roosting spots were ablaze was also looked at. Leader of the council, Bob Smith, said: "The problem with fire gel is that it would only repel them from wherever we put the gel and we can't smother the entire town in gel. "I'm sure a cull is the best option to get the flock down to a manageable size".

His fame and financial breakthrough pushed him into having up to six wives. His love for sex equally contributed to his patronage of the most beautiful girls in Ugbugbu Owukpa, Ogbadibo Local government area of Benue State where a man who was identified as Uroko Onoja was allegedly raped to death by his 6 jealous wives in the early hour of Tuesday. Trouble started on tuesday morning, precisely 3 am when Uroko returned from Ochanja, a popular joint in the small community of Ugbugbu and headed to the room of his youngest wife. The other wives who according to the youngest wife, Odachi had a meeting before Uroko returned home invaded her room with knives and sticks, demanding that their husband have sex with all of them at once. Uroko who resisted their attack was overpowered by the women who ordered that the sex march begin with the youngest wife and to continue in that order to the top. Our correspondent reported that Uroko stopped breathing when the fifth woman was making her way to the bed. “Suddenly, my husband stopped breathing, and they all ran out, still laughing, but when they saw that I could not resuscitate him, they all ran into the forest. As at the time this report was filed, 2 of the wives have been arrested.

German firemen had to be called in to rescue a man weighing in at nearly 45 stone (287 kg, ndMW) after he became stuck in his bath. A vacuum had built up between heavyweight Peter Roessler and his iron bathtub. One of the 46-year-old’s neighbors in Waldkraiburg, Germany, heard his yells for help on Sunday evening. The neighbour called paramedics who tried to rescue him using various methods, none of which worked. Then firefighters moved in and tried to cut him out with a saw which also failed. Finally they used a big drill hammer to detach the tub from the wall and then then cut out the suffering man with a steel-cutting saw. He then was heaved out of the second storey window and taken to hospital.


When Shandong police received a call reporting a body floating in one of the province’s rivers on July 11, they wasted no time dispatching 18 of their finest officers to recover it. As the police struggled to bring the corpse to the shore, rumor of the incident spread and a crowd of over 1000 spectators gathered, blocking traffic and preventing firefighters from reaching the scene. Finally, 40 minutes later, Chinese police succeeded in recovering the body. Only, it wasn’t a body, but an inflatable sex doll. As the “body” was floating about 40-50 meters from the riverbank, it was likely difficult for the police to realize what it actually was until it had been brought in closer. After confirming that they had indeed run around in a panic for nearly an hour over trying to rescue someone’s Dutch wife, the police presented it to the anxious crowd, who quickly covered their children’s eyes and walked away. This incident comes only a month after a local Chinese news station aired a story about the discovery of a legendary mushroom that turned out to be a discarded sex toy. You’d think the Chinese would be better at recognizing these things considering all the used ones they’re throwing away in public places…


Thousands of pounds' worth of cannabis plants were found dumped in by the side of a road. Around 340 plants, believed to be worth around £15,000, were discovered on a patch of wasteground in Chadderton, Oldham. Police were called to the area off Moston Road, near Greengate, around 9.30am today after a call from a member of the public who had spotted the plants. Officers arrived to discover hundreds of large cannabis plants, still in their plant pots, dumped in a pile. All the plants were bagged up to be removed from the scene [...] Officers are now carrying out inquiries in a bid to discover who dumped the plants - and why they were abandoned. No arrests have yet been made.
Dangerous Reptile Might Be a Beaver 
A crocodile hand puppet is the closest anyone has seen to a real reptile at Klauensee in Bavaria, despite days of searching. For days Officials in a German city deployed rubber dinghies, divers and even helicopters in search of an alleged stray crocodile. Now the authorities in Schwandorf believe the reptile was really just a beaver.



Scenes captured on video by a television journalist of a mob molesting and stripping a teenage girl in a city in north-east India have triggered outrage across the country, with many demanding to know why the journalists filmed the 30-minute assault rather than trying to help the young woman. At least four men have been arrested by police in the aftermath of the attack. Officers said they were able to identify a number of the alleged participants from the footage that was broadcast on television. The media channel has defended the actions of its staff. The incident in the city of Guwahati in the state of Assam on Monday evening has once again highlighted the dangers and threats often faced by women in India, a nation where sexual harassment is often referred to by the media as "eve-teasing". While north India has long had a reputation for often being a dangerous place for women, Assam reportedly has a higher than average rate of such incidents. Yesterday, television channels repeatedly broadcast the footage of the beating and assault of the young woman, said to have taken place after she had been celebrating a friend's birthday in a bar. The country's home minister, P Chidambaram, said action would be taken against those involved. "Molestation of women anywhere in India is condemnable," he said. The chief minister of the state, Tarun Gogoi, said: "No one has the right to molest anyone. I have asked the police to keep a vigil on the anti-social elements." As police in Guwahati, the state capital, said they were continuing their investigation, protesters took to the streets, putting up posters of the alleged culprits and demanding that the authorities act. Meanwhile, a flurry of allegations regarding the purported political connections of several of those involved have also been levelled. Police said the incident happened outside a bar on the city's GS Road. The young woman, said to be a 17-year-old fashion student, had been attending the birthday party of a friend. For some reason, the group was asked to leave the bar and got into an argument on the street. At that point, a group of up to 15 men started attacking and molesting the student, apparently stripping her of her clothes. Many have asked why the journalists from the NewsLive channel did not try to intervene, or at least go for help. The channel's editor-in-chief, Atanu Bhuyan, said: "Some [media] questioned me as to why my reporter and camera person shot the incident and didn't prevent the mob from molesting the girl. But I'm backing my team since the mob would have attacked them, prevented them from shooting, that would have only destroyed all evidence." Activists said that more needed to be done to change the mindset of those involved in such incidents.


France's far right National Front will sue Madonna after she screened footage of party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face at a concert in Paris on Saturday, a party official said. The video shown on a huge screen has already been used on other legs of the U.S. singer's tour and shows the singer's face merging with other public figures, such as Pope Benedict and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled by popular protests last year. The face of the National Front leader appears for a few seconds, with the Fascist symbol briefly imposed on it, and is followed by the features of a man resembling Adolf Hitler. "A private plaintiff's case for insult will be presented next week," Florian Philippot, vice-president of the National Front, told Reuters. He called the images an "unacceptable" provocation for attempting to associate Le Pen, who won 18 percent of the vote in April's first-round presidential election in France, with fascism [...] "It is our duty to bring a complaint to defend our voters and our supporters," Philippot said. Although Le Pen's calls for protectionism and for France's to exit the euro currency have won sympathy with some parts of the electorate, the party won only two seats in the 577-member National Assembly in last month's legislative elections, partly due to France's first-past-the-post electoral system.
The rising cost of chicken in Iran has prompted the country's police chief to urge broadcasters to censor it from television screens in the interests of social harmony


Against a backdrop of lengthening food queues, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the head of Iran's law enforcement forces, has warned that films depicting scenes of chicken dinners could provoke the underprivileged classes to attack the rich. "They show chicken being eaten in movies while somebody might not be able to buy it," Mr Ahmadi-Moghaddam, brother-in-law of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told a law enforcement officers conference in Tehran. "Films are now the windows of society and some people observing this class gap might say that we will take knives and take our rights from the rich. IRIB [Iran's state broadcaster] should not be the shop window for showing all which is not accessible".

The warning is the latest sign of official alarm over the strains being caused by rampant inflation and international sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is intended to produce an atom bomb, despite Tehran's denials. Rising chicken prices have come to symbolise the privations being endured by ordinary Iranians amid this increasingly grim landscape. In recent weeks, shoppers have had to fork out 70,000 rials (£3.67) for a kilogram of chicken, around three times last year's price.

Farmers and retailers have blamed a shortfall of imported livestock feed – partly caused by sanctions – leading in turn to a drastic rise in the price of domestically-produced feed. Similar increases have been witnessed in the costs of red meat, fruit and vegetables. With chicken forming a core part of the meat-rich national diet, long-queues have been reported at state food distribution centres, where it has been sold in rationed quantities at lower, government-fixed, prices. Perhaps with a view to stemming negative reporting, the Caspian Sea province of Gilan even took the novel step of offering discounted chicken to accredited journalists.
Those marrying for love will be excluded from the village. 

A village in northern India has banned love marriages and imposed a series of restrictions on women Council leaders in Asara in Uttar Pradesh state have reportedly barred women under 40 from shopping alone and from using mobile phones outside. They have also ordered women to cover their heads when outside. Village heads say the measures are a response to cases of harassment, but the Press Trust of India news agency reports police are investigating. The village council order was issued at a meeting on Wednesday, officials said. The council also ruled that those marrying for love would not be allowed to live in the village, reports said. Baghpat district, which is where Asara village is located, is only about 40km (25 miles) from the Indian capital, Delhi.

A neighborly dispute that has allegedly been going on for years intensified in the past few weeks. Shirley Draper, of Moulton Ave., placed a set of fake testicles in her back yard in June—right where her next door neighbors, the Dilibertos, could see them. Peter Diliberto called the Town of Tonawanda Police Department on June 27 to complain about the fake testicles, but the police told him they could not handle the issue — as displaying the fake testicles is not considered illegal. Lt. Nick Bado said the department has had similar issues before with fake testicles on the backs of vehicles, and that they have contacted attorneys to inquire about the legality of such inappropriate objects. “They specifically said that they aren’t considered illegal on vehicles because they are not obscene by the definition of the word,” Bado said. “In this case, it was private property as well—so there definitely aren’t any legal grounds”. Bado said that he assumes the Dilibertos were upset with the response from the police. So they responded by taking a picture of Draper’s fake testicles and putting up a laminate sign of the picture in their yard, facing Draper’s property. “I assume it was a message of ‘well now, you have to look at them, too,’” Bado said. On July 4, Draper leaned over the fence separating her yard from the Dilibertos’ and tore down the picture, ripping it. According to Bado, Draper wasn’t arrested, but she will be served criminal summons for fourth-degree criminal mischief and trespassing.

When farmer Erard Louw gets a call from one of his sheep, he isn’t a happy man. Louw, of Durbanville in Cape Town, had 27 sheep and 13 lambs stolen 10 days ago, and has tried to find new ways of protecting his animals. So, he came up with the idea of tying cellphones on to the collars of four sheep in separate flocks. As soon as they start running, the cellphone is set to switch on. “As they run it gives me a phone call and says ‘sheep one’ or ‘sheep two’ and so on, so at least I know where to start looking because the farm is 750 hectares. The phone did start ringing that night and I went out. I checked all the fences – because they normally cut the fences – and they were all okay and the gates were closed. But the phone kept ringing, so I knew they were running. Then I found a new place where they had cut the fence”. He was too late to catch those stock thieves, but said his sheep cellphones had caught another thief.

Stock theft of sheep is a major problem in the Western Cape and has led to sheep farmers leaving the industry. Winter is a peak time for sheep theft because the wet weather covers spoor, darkness comes early and the nights are longer. If the lambs bleat too loudly when rustlers are herding them off the farms, they are killed and dumped. Louw said yesterday that the thieves had killed four of the lambs by smashing their skulls against poles. He said the SAPS stock theft unit did try to help, but they were stationed far away in Malmesbury. His experience was that there was not much point phoning the police because either they did not have a vehicle available, or they had no petrol, or the tyres had been stolen, or there was no one who could drive. - The Star
The Simplest Things. Danny Lamb accompagna alla chitarra la nostra beniamina Rebecca Alitsi, in grande forma, in occasione della sua visita a Stoccolma per essere premiata dalla International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus  per il suo impegno nell'educazione delle giovani africane

A street vendor's advertisement featuring the full, red lips of a woman wrapped around a thick sausage has caused a stir in a southern Sweden town, leaving gender experts outraged. The advert includes a close-up picture of a woman clutching a hotdog with two hands, with her lips wrapped around the tip of the sausage. Below reads the text “Thick sausage with bread” together with prices and other items on sale at the street kiosk, located in Simrishamn in southern Sweden. Gender studies expert Britten Dehlin has immediately taken issue with the picture. “This is a sexualized picture. A prime example of an poorly-thought through act and a traditional gender approach with the aim of drawing in customers,” she told the local Ystads Allehanda newspaper. Dehlin had also been outraged the year before when the kiosk featured an ad of a naked woman wrapping herself around a sausage. However, kiosk owner Jörgen Andersson doesn’t see the problem. “I think the picture’s fun! The youngsters don’t get it – they only see the sausage,” he told the paper, adding that the picture had been used by Swedish food retailer Scan around seven years ago. Meanwhile, Dehlin is furious that the picture may sour potential residents from moving to the area, claiming the sexy sausage ad “sabotages” the municipality's gender equality. “We want people to come here, we want Simrishamn to have a good reputation and take the lead with our gender equality work. This is not just behind the times, but it’s working against equality,” she told the paper. Meanwhile, a member of the local council which allows the vendor to rent space at the municipality-run sports hall told the paper he hadn't seen the ad but would nevertheless make sure the offending menu is removed "immediately".
Intervista esclusiva al Bosone di Crocicchio

MW - Onorevole Bosone, come si sente nell'essere stato scoperto?

Crocicchio - Innanzi tutto io mi chiamo Armando Crocicchio e non Bosone, che casomai sarà quel frocio del suo amante

MW - Senatore Bosone, che cosa prova in questo momento?

Crocicchio - Provo che, insieme ai neutrini, mi girano alla velocità della luce anche i coglioni. Ma lei con questo cazzo di domande è davvero Miss Welby oppure Barbara d'Urso?

MW - Presidente Bosone, quali sono i suoi programmi per il futuro?

Crocicchio - i miei programmi per il futuro consistono nel tirarle in testa un busto marmoreo di me stesso per concludere questa falsa intervista

ndr: l'intervista si conclude anticipatamente a causa di un grave trauma cranico riportato da Miss Welby


Francesco Guccini, Vedi cara, dedicata a Gudrun
Vedi cara, è difficile a spiegare, è difficile parlare dei fantasmi di una mente. Vedi cara, tutto quel che posso dire è che cambio un po' ogni giorno, è che sono differente. Vedi cara, certe volte sono in cielo come un aquilone al vento che poi a terra ricadrà. Vedi cara, è difficile a spiegare, è difficile capire se non hai capito già... Vedi cara, certe crisi son soltanto segno di qualcosa dentro che sta urlando per uscire. Vedi cara certi giorni sono un anno, certe frasi sono un niente che non serve più sentire. Vedi cara le stagioni ed i sorrisi son denari che van spesi con dovuta proprietà. Vedi cara è difficile a spiegare, è difficile capire se non hai capito già... Non capisci quando cerco in una sera un mistero d' atmosfera che è difficile afferrare, quando rido senza muovere il mio viso, quando piango senza un grido, quando invece vorrei urlare, quando sogno dietro a frasi di canzoni, dietro a libri e ad aquiloni, dietro a ciò che non sarà... Vedi cara è difficile a spiegare, è difficile capire se non hai capito già... Non rimpiango tutto quello che mi hai dato che son io che l'ho creato e potrei rifarlo ora, anche se tutto il mio tempo con te non dimentico perchè questo tempo dura ancora. Non cercare in un viso la ragione, in un nome la passione che lontano ora mi fa. Vedi cara è difficile a spiegare, è difficile capire se non hai capito già... Tu sei molto, anche se non sei abbastanza, e non vedi la distanza che è fra i miei pensieri e i tuoi, tu sei tutto, ma quel tutto è ancora poco, tu sei paga del tuo gioco ed hai già quello che vuoi. Io cerco ancora e così non spaventarti quando senti allontanarmi: fugge il sogno, io resto qua! Sii contenta della parte che tu hai, ti do quello che mi dai, chi ha la colpa non si sa. Cerca dentro per capir quello che sento, per sentir che ciò che cerco non è il nuovo o libertà... Vedi cara è difficile a spiegare, è difficile capire se non hai capito già... Francesco Guccini
... ancora Jannacci, Gaber e altri...
... Janacci più Gaber...
... ancora Jannacci...
Giornata musicale con Enzo Jannacci...


A group of kids in a shelter for homeless children in New Delhi have a few lessons for the world's international bankers. They have invented a financial system of their own to save for a brighter future. ­In a shelter for homeless runaway teens in New Delhi, a tiny, self-starting democracy has sprung up. The residents have created an unlikely society where everything from healthcare to banking has been initiated, implemented and executed by the kids themselves. “There are children who have a job and they deposit their money in our bank and even the children who go to school save their money,” explained bank manager Satish Kumar, whose peers elected him to be bank manager of this branch of the children’s development 'khazana' (Indian for 'treasure') that serves around 9,000 street children across South Asia and has 77 branches in the region. Many of the runaway teens now have a place to safely keep their money, save for the future and take out development or welfare advances to invest in starting businesses or buying books for school. Mohammad Shah, a 12-year-old bank client, told RT that he has taken an advance three times. “The first time I took 500 rupees to buy the school uniform and other things, the second time I took the advance because my mother was sick. I took 1000 rupees and got the necessary check up done for my mother. The third time I took the advance was because I had to repay some money I had borrowed to help my father open a shop,” he said. The kids have a monthly meeting where they review applications for those who wish an advance and then, based on their track record of saving and earning, they decide who to grant the advances to and how quickly they need to pay it back. In a time when many people would argue that the global financial system is on the brink of collapse and that the system itself might be fundamentally flawed, it seems like these teenagers from the streets of New Delhi have the whole thing figured out. They hold everyone from the account managers to the clients accountable for their financial decisions. Through meetings and discussions over lunch the children have taught each other how to save and invest in their future: “I think that if we don't put the money in the bank then we tend to spend it on unnecessary things and waste the money. So when we save the money it can be used to do important things that may come up in the future like buying new clothes,” Sameer, a bank client, shared. It’s a sense of responsibility and survival that has shocked the supervisors of the shelters themselves and one that they say leaders around the world might want to take a look at. “They can be the super models in this whole thing because they know how to save money. They know how to utilize money for the best because they learn how to prioritize their needs, which we as adults actually don’t know,” Sharon Jacob from “Butterflies” child rights non-profit organization said. Mohammad Shah is hoping that he can save the money he makes selling bottles of water at night to put towards his education so he can one day accomplish his goal of becoming a policeman. “I am thinking for the future as I want to save the money and do some thing useful with it when the time comes,” he says.
L'Européen è il blog in francese di Olivier Dupuis, già eurodeputato e segretario del Partito radicale, dedicato alla politica transnazionale. L'ho aggiunto ai link nella barra laterale a sinistra, mentre in quella a destra trovate in italiano il suo trattato su Federalismo e nazionalità. Meritano di essere letti sia quella sua opera che di essere seguito il suo nuovo blog. Ciao Olivier!
Calling himself a proponent of equal rights, the mayor of a small town in the Black Forest has designated special parking spaces in the municipal garage for men - because they're harder to get into. 

Gallus Strobel, mayor of the town of Triberg, best known for its waterfalls and cuckoo clocks, has made headlines recently for his new parking garage policy. Unlike the 12 spaces set aside for women, which are wider, well-lit, and closer to the exit, the men’s spaces require the driver to pull in at an angle, and avoid hitting cement pillars. They are an “attraction” for any ambitious driver, Strobel told the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. “But men are, as a rule, a little better at such challenges,” he told the paper. Strobel, 58, who says he has parked in the spaces three times, admitted that “of course, there are also great women drivers!” He told the paper that when he came to the idea, he knew it would challenge “political correctness.” But he says he has received mostly positive feedback from his stunt. Strobel said that the move was good advertising for his town, and that one man emailed him saying he would travel there just to test himself at parking. Women, too, he says have put themselves to the challenge. “They are, of course, most welcome!” he told the paper.

Alcohol and a woman were behind an alleged assault that culminated with the theft of a wooden alligator in Tyrone Township, state police at Hollidaysburg said Friday. Todd W. Pensyl, 40, of Altoona allegedly beat up Michael A. Barner, 41, around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday because Pensyl saw his ex-girlfriend arrive at Barner's 307 Dons Drive home in Sinking Valley, Trooper Kenneth Benton said. Pensyl is accused of walking into Barner's home and assaulting Barner, ultimately pushing him out the back door and onto the lawn where police said he continued the attack. A hand-carved wooden alligator belonging to Barner was taken by Pensyl out of spite, Benton said. Both Barner and Pensyl were drinking, police said. The alligator was found in a nearby yard, Benton said. Pensyl is lodged in Blair County Prison on $25,000 bail and faces aggravated assault, burglary and theft-related charges. Barner was also taken into custody after he was treated at the hospital on an unrelated warrant stemming from a simple assault, police said. Barner remains free on $20,000 unsecured bail.

After she dumped him, he went back to have a line inked through it, along with the words, “Shit happens”. Lovestruck Jordan Cotton had his girlfriend’s name tattooed on his neck – just before they split up. Then, after she dumped him, he went back to have a line inked through it, along with the words, “Shit happens”.


But his ex was less than pleased when she saw the result. And Jordan, 21, ended up in court for smashing 17-year-old Olivia Nuttall’s BlackBerry phone in a blazing row. Imran Hussain, defending, told magistrates that Jordan was full of remorse. Jordan Cotton - A 21-year-old man who had his girlfriend's name tattooed on the back of his neck found the relationship was less permanent than the ink. He said: “In the fairytale stage of the romance he had her name tattooed on his neck. “She wasn’t very happy when she saw the edited version, just two weeks after they split. This caused a row during which he grabbed her phone and threw it against a wall. He accepts the relationship is over and doesn’t intend to have any further contact with this lady – or any more tattoos.” The court heard Jordan regretted the first tattoo, but was pleased with the alteration. Olivia was at home late one night when he came round making a nuisance of himself after the break-up of their stormy 18-month relationship. Olivia Nuttall from Blackburn, Lancs, who had her name replace with 'Shit Happens' on her boyfriends tattoo. He snatched the phone from her, climbed out of a window and threw it against a wall. Jordan, from Blackburn, Lancs, admitted damaging it. He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £150 compensation. Afterwards Olivia claimed she never wanted Jordan to have the neck tattoo. She said: “He said that he loved me and I told him, ‘Well, it’s up to you’.” And she also revealed that she has HIS name engraved on her arm. Olivia says she plans to have it covered up with a new design – done tastefully.

A Sri Lankan youth employed as a domestic aid has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for worshiping a statue of the Buddha, which is considered an offence according to Shariah law. According to the Bodu Bala Senaa, the youth bearing passport no. 2353715 identified as Premanath Pereralage Thungasiri has been arrested by Umulmahami Police, which is a grave situation. The organisation states that information has been received regarding a plan that is underway to behead a Sri Lankan youth employed in domestic service in Saudi Arabia. Although a complaint has been lodged at the Foreign Employment Bureau, Battaramulla, under complaint no: CN/158/1205, so far no action has been taken. While the youth is a Buddhist, the charge levelled against him is that he paid obeisance to the Buddha at the house where he was employed. The Bodu Bala Senaa organisation further said those employed in Muslim countries are prevented from practicing their religious faiths, and if found to do so are punished severely. Recently a Sri Lankan woman was arrested for gazing at a child at a shopping complex, where she was accused of witchcraft, on the grounds that she had a black cord around her wrist. However, the organisation accused the Foreign Employment Bureau officials of not educating the Sri Lankan workers travelling to Saudi Arabia regarding the laws in those countries pertaining to religious rights. Therefore, many of our migrant workers in Saudi Arabia face these situations due to their ignorance of the prevailing laws of those countries. On prior occasions too many Sri Lankan female domestic workers were forced to embrace Islam, and wear the traditional attire, while so far four Sri Lankan youth have been beheaded in that country.

A man who attempted to rape a woman has been cleared of the charges by a Swedish court after it turned out that the woman he tried to rape was biologically a man. “The intended crime never had the possibility of being fulfilled,” explained judge Dan Sjöstedt of the Örebro District Court to local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda. When the 61-year-old man had tried to commit the rape in Örebro, he had no idea that the intended victim was born a man, and had been taking hormonal treatment to reach the “right” identity, wrote the paper. After following the woman for some time, the would-be rapist was “brutally violent” in the "attempted rape", tearing off the victim's pants and grabbing at the victim's crotch, according to the paper. The incident occurred in front of the woman's ex-boyfriend’s house, and it was him who came rushing to intervene. When police arrived, they arrested the attacker. However, the court has ruled that the 61-year-old had intended to rape a woman, as he had been following her before the attack, making a conscious decision to rape her specifically. The man also referred to his victim as "she" throughout the court case. As this woman was biologically a man, his intentions were impossible to commit as the rape could never be completed. “We believe that he wanted to rape this woman in particular. But as she turned out to be a man, the crime never was actually committed,” said Sjöstedt, adding that the case against rape was “invalid”. "There are different theories about how this should be handled, and so we’re looking forward to seeing the verdict from the Court of Appeals,” he said, adding that he would appeal the decision if he were the prosecutor or the defence. The 61-year-old was instead convicted of assault and sentenced to four months prison. The court also ordered the man to pay 15,000 kronor ($2,161) in compensation to the woman.
Zookeepers hope 15-year-old Tori will finally beat decade-long addiction when she is moved out of visitors' reach 

Zookeepers in Indonesia have been forced to move an orangutan out of visitors' reach after it developed a serious smoking habit. Tori learned to smoke 10 years ago by imitating zoo visitors, who would throw their cigarette butts into her open cage. She has been smoking ever since, according to activists. They say she holds up two fingers to her mouth to indicate she wants a cigarette and becomes angry and throws things if none are readily available. Keepers at Taru Jurug zoo in Solo have unsuccessfully tried luring the ape away with food and extinguishing the butts with water. Now the zoo, with help from the Borneo-based Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP), plans to move the 15-year-old primate and her partner to a small island on the premises by August. They hope the large trees, rope swings and views over the facility will make Tori forget about her nicotine fix. Until then, the centre has sent extra volunteers to guard the cage and will install mesh netting to prevent visitors from throwing in their butts. Tori may be Indonesia's most famous smoking orangutan, but she is not the only one. The animal's parents were also smokers and many more of Indonesia's zoo-based orangutans are thought to be hooked on the habit, says Hardi Baktiantoro of COP. The creatures' 97% genetic similarity to humans means that they will often mimic and take on behaviours similar to ours – sometimes to their detriment. "It is very common in Indonesian zoos for people to throw cigarettes or food [at animals] even though there are signs to not feed or give cigarettes," says Baktiantoro. "It happens all the time. [In Tori's case], people will throw cigarettes in, watch her smoke, start laughing and take pictures." So far, Tori's partner, Didik, who is new to the zoo, has not yet taken up smoking, preferring instead to stamp out butts whenever they are thrown into the cage he and Tori share. But activists worry that he could soon succumb to the habit, as nearly 70% of Indonesian men over the age of 20 are smokers, and zookeepers have had difficulty preventing visitors from smoking on the premises. Indonesia's zoos have come under fire for their conditions – where visitors, not just zookeepers, are sometimes to blame. It was reported two years ago that, at Surabaya zoo in East Java, about 25 of its 4,000 animals were dying prematurely every month. This included a Sumatran tiger and an African lion. In March this year, a 30-year-old giraffe was found dead at the zoo with an 18kg (39.7lb) ball of plastic in its stomach, after years of eating litter thrown into its pen by visitors.

A man who claimed his 65-year-old mother agreed to sex with him on Mother's Day has been found guilty of raping her. The 45-year-old Dublin man had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman at her home in March 2008. During three days of evidence, the court heard that the man admitted having sex with his mother on the evening of Mother's Day but claimed it was consensual. The court heard the woman, who lives alone, was taking a number of medications for a medical condition, including a strong painkiller. On Mother's Day she went to a social event during which she drank three "small bottles" of wine and ate a four-course meal. She was in bed when her son rang the doorbell at 11pm. He asked her to come downstairs to have a drink with her because it was still Mother's Day. She said her son poured vodka drinks and put on a Joe Dolan CD. She said her son asked her to dance and she did but then sat down again. The victim said she must have blacked out then because she doesn't know how she ended up on the floor, having sex with her son. Giollaiosa O Lideadha, defending, put it to the woman that the combination of alcohol, medication and a "very complicated history between you and (the accused)" caused confusion in her mind. The accused told the court his mother began kissing him on the mouth and continued to do so while they had sex. Mr Justice Barry White said it was not often a jury had to encounter a trial as "distasteful and sordid" as this one and excused the jurors from further service for life. He remanded the man in continuing custody for sentencing on October 1 and ordered that he be registered as a sex offender.

The major alert which closed the M6 toll today was caused by a 'health improvement aid' for smokers, Staffordshire Police said this afternoon. Police said their response, which saw armed police and military personnel called to the scene, was "swift and proportional." They said they received a report at about 8.20am from "a genuinely concerned member of the public" who saw vapour coming out of a bag as the coach was near the M6 toll plaza at Weeford, near Lichfield. The incident shut the M6 toll road in both directions for more than four hours. Armed police officers led passengers off the vehicle one by one and took them to a cordoned-off area of tarmac. The passengers, including at least one young boy, were surrounded by police as the coach was searched. Several other cordoned-off areas could also be seen, along with what appeared to be decontamination units. Military personnel, police dog handlers, firefighters and other specialist units were also at the scene. A spokeswoman for Megabus, which is operated by Stagecoach, said 48 passengers were booked on the service and all were safe and well. "We are assisting police with their inquiries into an allegation made against a passenger who was travelling on the 05.10 Preston to London service. There were 48 people booked to travel on board the service, which was due to arrive at Victoria Coach Station in London at 10.55am. Police have confirmed that all passengers are safe and well and they have been transferred to a substitute vehicle. We are making arrangements to provide onward travel for passengers as soon as we receive clearance from the police." Eyewitness Nick Jones, who was stopped on the motorway for more than an hour and a half, told BBC News that police warned him to stay in his car, keep his windows closed and not to use air conditioning. "I was beginning to feel a little uneasy, I was beginning to look around for an escape route." A Staffordshire police spokeswoman said: "Given the credibility of the information we received, we responded swiftly and proportionately. We can now confirm that, whilst this was a genuine security alert, the significant concerns reported to us were unfounded. It's important to state that no criminal offence has been committed and no passenger or any other member of the public is being treated as a suspect. Our utmost priority was the safety and security of the public and whilst on this occasion the incident was resolved peacefully without event, we want to encourage the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience and hope that the public understand that we have our duty to safeguard public safety." Police stood down after the incident which they earlier announced was "not being treated as terror related." Military personnel were at the scene earlier with a truck marked Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said: "The Ministry of Defence is providing assistance to the police at their request under routine military procedure." Rupert Evelyn, Midlands Correspondent for ITV News, told the Standard earlier that the police were using a line of cars as a “shield” as they called passengers off one by one. A mother and child were among those instructed by officers to walk slowly off the bus with their hands away from their bodies. Mr Evelyn said the police appeared to be keeping the evacuation orderly. He said: “The police are standing back from a blue Megabus, about 200 metres in front of them. There’s about a dozen armed officers using them as shields watching each passenger come off the bus. It looks like each passenger is being taken off the bus and brought back to the forecourt. I could see a mother holding a child in her arms walking back towards the toll booths. In front of the bus they have got a marked and unmarked police car. It looks like they’ve been asked to keep their hands away from their bodies, to walk open-handed. There’s police cars, vans and ambulances in every direction. We think there’s bomb disposal, but you can’t see. There’s lots of police activity and heavy machinery. It looks like they’re bringing another bus down the carriageway.” Neil Crosby, 27, who works in marketing, was travelling on the opposite side of the motorway when traffic came to a halt. he said: “We were about 400m from the coach on the opposite side. There were three police cars in front of us and two unmarked cars further down in front of us. At first I thought it was an accident. We looked further down the road and no one was going anywhere near the coach apart from one armed policeman who was knelt down in the middle of the road looking towards it. Then a fire engine and three ambulances turned up. It was all really strange, like they were waiting for something to happen. By the time we I left there were ten to 15 police cars, vans and fire engines.”

A private German economics and business university is suing one of its students for lost income after he finished his Bachelors and Masters degrees in about a quarter of the normal time. Marcel Pohl completed 60 examinations in 20 months, gaining a grade of 2.3, and was officially ex-matriculated in August 2011. Such a course usually takes 11 semesters, but he only needed three. Now the Essen-based School of Economics and Management (FOM) want the 22-year-old to pay his fees up the end of 2011 - an extra €3,000. "When I got the lawsuit, I thought it couldn't be true," Pohl, who now works for a bank in Frankfurt, told the Bild newspaper. "Performance is supposed to be worth something." Pohl completed his turbo degree by dividing up all the simultaneous lectures with two friends and then swapping notes. At the same time, he completed an apprenticeship in a bank. "We didn't get any freebies, and we agreed our plans in advance with the school," Pohl said. "We're always against slow students," said his lawyer Bernhard Kraas. "But when someone hurries and finishes early, suddenly he has to pay. That can't be right." But the FOM argues that its fees are the total price for the studies, independent of how long the studies last. But if that it is the case, it remains unclear why they are only calling for a part of the cost for 11 semesters. "We do not want to comment on the case before it has reached court," a university spokesman said.

Two Brazilian air force pilots could be collared by the long arm of the law after making a low-altitude supersonic fly pass which shattered every window of Brazil's Supreme Court. If they know what's good for them, it might be a good idea to keep flying and put as much distance between them and the angry lawyers inside the blown-out building. Swooping low over the structure housing the Supremo Tribunal Federal in Brasilia, the two French-made Mirage 2000 jets generated a massive shockwave - destroying the building's glass facade. The war planes had been taking part in the ceremony of exchange of the national flag at the Praça dos Três Poderes, at the Esplanada dos Ministerios. No one was injured in the incident, but the shockwave was so powerful nearly every window in the court building was destroyed and a few in the Congressional buildings beyond. Indeed, in videos of the incident, members of the crowds watching the ceremony can be heard whooping and hollering at the impressive aeronautic display. Impressive to everyone but the legal eagles inside the building. The two French-made Mirage 2000 jets generated a massive shockwave - destroying the building's glass facade. Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, chief of the Centre for Social Communication of the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB), said military authorities had investigated the incident and would reimburse any cost. Made by French arms company Dassault, Mirage 2000s are known for their fantastic straight line speed, reaching just over twice the speed of sound [...] However, the single-engined warplanes are also notorious for their enormous turning circles - a manoeuvrability issue at high speed that could have played a part in yesterday's incident. After all, if the pilots had time to see what was coming up ahead of them, they would have had little chance to do anything about it. The FAB operate 12 of the planes, which have been out of production since 2007.

Colombo: Police arrested 53 people for failing to eliminate stagnant water and other mosquito breeding grounds as Sri Lanka tries to prevent dengue fever, which has infected thousands already this year. Police, army and health officers searched 11,500 houses in the capital Colombo over seven hours on Sunday, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said. Those arrested for not cleaning up their surrounding environment face fines and up to six months in jail. He said this is the first time police made such a large number of arrests from Colombo for failing to clean mosquito breeding places. Dengue fever has killed 74 people this year and infected 15,000. Health officials say it has increased because residents have become more careless about cleaning their properties and eliminating mosquito breeding grounds. The flu-like illness is spread by the Aedes mosquito and spikes during the annual monsoons, when the rains leave puddles of stagnant water where the insects breed. In Sri Lanka, the southwest monsoon that usually begins in May lasts until September. Dengue starts suddenly with a high fever, rash, severe headache and pain behind the eyes and in the muscles and joints. The severity of the joint pain has given dengue the name ``breakbone fever.'' Nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite also are common. The government said last week 10,000 security forces had been deployed to help dengue eradication efforts this month. They help to search houses and buildings to detect breeding places and join other public workers to clean public buildings and places.

A motorist's bid to begin driving a replica of Fred Flintstone's footmobile has been foiled after German police ruled his Stone Age vehicle was too unsafe to take for a spin. Sebastian Trager, Flintstones Sebastian Trager in his Flintstone mobile. It was a case of 'Yabba Dabba Don't' for Flintstones nut Sebastian Trager after police banned his custom built motor from German roads. Featuring a wooden frame design and leopard print seat covers, engineer Trager built the model using the chassis of a Volkswagen Polo. There's no need for Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble's pedal power however, with the modern adaptation of the Flintmobile boasting a 1.3 litre engine hidden under the front roller. Trager's bid to make his vehicle legally roadworthy hit the skids after German police ruled that the vehicle was too unsafe to be driven on public roads. 'We copied every last detail. I work in car construction and love working with cars so it is perfectly safe - explained Trager - But when we got the registration form section about the number of lights, windscreen washers and wipers, well, we don't even have a windscreen so we gave up. Instead we trailer it to shows and exhibitions for people to see and everyone seems to love it.'