Freedom of Shrieks BERLIN - A swingers club in Berlin was forced to shut

because a court ruled that members' moans and shrieks of pleasure violated noise

regulations.

Freedom of Expression SYDNEY - Australian police

warned that the law would lose its bite if "mooning" became enshrined as an

implied constitutional right.

Long Ride AMSTERDAM - Two Dutch

mechanical engineering students tried to ride into the record books on a

28-meter (90-foot) bicycle they made themselves.

Bowling Alone

LITTLE ROCK - An Arkansas man was charged with murder for allegedly bludgeoning

his wife with a bowling ball.

Kiss of the Spider Woman MODESTO,

Calif. - A police pathologist ruled that the bite a woman gave her husband after

he refused to have sex eventually caused his death.

Transparent

Plot TEHRAN - Iranian police were on the lookout for an alleged sorcerer who

conned a man into believing he was invisible and could rob banks.

Pit

Stop BERLIN - A German driver who got out of his car on a hill to relieve

himself found his vehicle at the bottom of a river after he forgot to apply the

hand brake.

Nut Case CAIRO - A woman set fire to her Cairo

apartment after a row with her husband over his refusal to buy dried fruit and

nuts traditionally eaten in the holy month of Ramadan.

Elks Club

STOCKHOLM - Police shot dead a drunken bull elk that attacked a young boy after

becoming intoxicated on fermented apples.

Getting the Drop LAKE

CITY, Fla. - A Lake City woman was hospitalized after her 9mm handgun fell into

the commode and discharged, hitting her in the left buttock.

Wedding

Gaity AMMAN, Jordan - The groom spent his wedding night in jail after

accidentally shooting dead two guests while firing his automatic rifle to

celebrate his marriage.

Something's Fishy LONDON - A Welsh police

team dubbed "the Frying Squad" was formed to sniff out motorists who fuel their

cars with cooking oil from fish and chip shops in a bid to avoid paying high

government fuel taxes.

Barrel House OLATHE, Kan. - Attorneys for a

man accused of killing women and stuffing them into barrels asked for a change

of venue after a disc jockey showed up on the courthouse lawn handing out

T-shirts that read "ROLL OUT THE BARRELS."

Tossing Off GENEVA - A

United Nations committee rejected a Frenchman's appeal of his country's ban on

dwarf-tossing on the grounds it violated his human rights.

Speeder

Caged LONDON - British detectives were looking into the mystery of a hamster

found driving a treadmill-powered toy racing car along a promenade near the

seaside resort of Blackpool, newspapers said.

CIA Guinea Pig

OXNARD, Calif. - An Oxnard man was charged with animal cruelty and being under

the influence of amphetamines after allegedly torturing and dissecting his

daughter's pet guinea pig because he thought it was a camera-equipped robot

placed in his home by government agents.

Night Work JIM THORPE,

Pa. - A man sentenced for falling asleep behind the wheel of his car and

crashing into a school bus told the judge he dozed off because he was up late

the night before making counterfeit checks.

Angkor Shots PHNOM

PENH, Cambodia - Cambodian police presented a $256 crime-fighting prize to an

officer who surprised a suspected temple looter at Angkor Wat and shot him in

the testicles.

Bad Rap PARIS - A court fined French rapper Joey

Starr the equivalent of $9,100 after he hit his pet monkey on television,

sparking a storm of protest from animal rights activists, including former film

star Brigitte Bardot.

Auto Examination VILNIUS, Lithuania -

Lithuania's Health Ministry scrapped a Soviet-era rule requiring that women

undergo gynecological examinations to qualify for a driver's

license.

The Eyes of Rhode Island PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Rhode

Island State Senate unanimously passed a bill to issue automobile license tags

honoring the 50th anniversary of Mr. Potato Head.

A Nice Chianti

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Two crematorium workers accused of eating human body

parts, washed down with a bottle of wine, were freed by a provincial court

because there is no law against cannibalism in Cambodia.

Pig Party

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Members of a Wake Forest University fraternity were

charged with animal cruelty and abandonment after their pet pig was found drunk,

dehydrated and sunburned in a local park.

Dream Ticket BUENOS

AIRES - An Argentine fortuneteller threatened to burn down the house of a

lottery ticket seller she accused of entering her dreams to steal winning

lottery numbers.

In a Jam MONROEVILLE, Ala. - A man was convicted

of shooting into his girlfriend's car because she didn't fix him toast for

breakfast.

Source: The Washington Post