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
