4 hours ago
Week in Review Sunday
Police have arrested a man suspected of leaving greasy, graphic imprints on the windows of stores, churches and schools in a small Nebraska town. A 35-year-old man was caught in the act by police early Wednesday morning, Cherry County Attorney Eric Scott said Friday. The man hasn't been charged yet, but authorities believe he is the vandal some townsfolk have dubbed the "Butt Bandit." Beginning in spring of 2007, a mystery vandal visited businesses at night, pressing his naked behind — sometimes his groin, sometimes both — on windows. The marks were made with lotion or petroleum jelly, and while police had earlier worried copycat criminals were getting involved, Scott said they now believe it's "the act of a lone deviant." The past two summers, the bandit struck business after business, window after window. He stopped over the fall and winter. During one particularly brazen session, virtually all the windows at a local hotel were imprinted.
Who said bras are only for women? A Japanese online lingerie retailer is selling bras for cross-dressing men and they've quickly become one of its most popular items. Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men's bras for 2,800 yen ($30) each. The shop also stocks men's panties, as well as lingerie for women. "I like this tight feeling. It feels good," Wishroom representative Masayuki Tsuchiya told Reuters as he modeled the bra, which can be worn discreetly under men's clothing. Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman. "I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time'," she said. But the bra, available in black, pink and white, is not an easy sell for all men. The underwear has stirred a heated debate online with more than 8,000 people debating the merits of men wearing bras in one night on Mixi, Japan's top social network website.
The 29-year-old has his own website where he appears in nude and semi-nude positions and he's even posed for these pics to become a calendar boy. "I feel sexy and attractive so that's the way I act," said Mikey, from Memphis, in the US. "I don't see why I can't pose for photos like any other male model." The financial consultant is so proud of his voluptuous body he has been selling his calendars for 14.99 dollars (£10). "Posing for the calendar just felt natural. It was very liberating actually," said Mikey, who appears as an angry bull (May), and with a Christmas hat (December). I was completely overwhelmed by the response to the 2008 Chubby Mikey Calendar," he added. "I actually had to refund orders because my supplies were depleted." Although Mikey, who is homosexual, is no Johnny Depp he's not short of admirers in the "chubby chaser" community - men who are attracted to overweight people. "The guys I date are often really slim and muscle-bound but they love my curvy figure," he said. "It's great because I can be just be who I want to be some people may like it some may not, but I am what I am. I get hundreds of emails each week and the vast majority of them are positive. If someone says something mean I just ignore them and don't let it bother me. I've been the same all my life." Mikey, who lives with his mother Lill, 57, maintains his figure with fry-ups and big dinners - but insists he's not unhealthy.
A man caught near Nobbys Beach with his penis in a pasta sauce jar led police on a 20kmh car chase, Newcastle Local Court heard yesterday. Police drew their weapons when they suspected Keith Roy Weatherley, 46, was armed. Instead, they found him partially clothed with his genitals in a jar, a police statement said. Weatherley, of Promontory Way, North Arm Cove, attracted attention parked in a no-stopping zone before noon on October 26. Police believed Weatherley was doing something with his hands in his lap and thought that he might have a weapon. Weatherley saw the police and drove away, despite them flashing their lights. The chase lasted five to 10 minutes, with a top speed of just 20 kmh, before Weatherley was stopped at Centenary Drive, Newcastle. He refused to leave the car. Four officers used batons and capsicum spray to remove him. They found a 750-millilitre jar around his penis and noted that Weatherley attempted to continue "pleasuring himself in between bouts of wrestling". A search of his car uncovered pornography, a home-made sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier.
Arizona State University student Alex Botsios said he had no problem giving a nighttime intruder his wallet and guitars. When the man asked for Botsios' laptop, however, the first-year law student drew the line. "I was like, 'Dude, no -- please, no!" Botsios said. "I have all my case notes…that's four months of work!" Police said Gabriel Saucedo entered Botsios' apartment through an open window early Thursday morning. When Botsios woke up, Saucedo threatened him with a baseball bat, police said. He was just like, 'I'm going to smash your head in,'" Botsios said. At that point, the law student wrestled the bat away and began punching Saucedo, Botsios said. "I basically grabbed him and threw him this way, and he held onto the bat so it threw him to the ground," he said. Police said they took Saucedo to the hospital for stitches before they arrested him on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping. Other than a bruised knuckle and a few scratches, Botsios was unharmed. Janet Botsios, Botsios' mother, said she took the first flight from Texas as soon as she heard what happened. "I'm like putting my face in my hands, and I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my God.' I'm so glad he watched all those police shows his whole life … He knew how to take care of himself … I'm very, very, very proud of him." Alex Botsios said he learned one lesson from the incident: don't leave windows open. Otherwise, he said he is happy that his laptop is unharmed. "It's my baby," he said. "Don't mess with my computer."
Sheriff's investigators in Scott County Friday night were trying to learn more about 4-year-old Austin Watkins' starvation death. Watkins was taken to a hospital about a year ago, police said, and detectives wonder if the claims that he was sick may have actually masked malnutrition. An insurance policy worth $10,000 was taken out on the boy, police said. The document was actually pinned to the wall of Watkins' room. The insurance policy was free from Gerber Baby Foods but would've paid $10,000. A lot of people are asking how this could've happened. "It broke my heart," Scott County resident Loretta Herring said. "I have three grandbabies." Many people were wondering how a 4-year-old child could starve to death and no one knew it was happening. "It's horrible," resident Billy Frank Alford said. "I'm just sick to my stomach. In fact, it's the worst crime I have heard of." Watkins weighed 19 pounds when he starved to death, police said. Investigators believe he had not eaten for about two weeks. The sheriff said investigators are looking into claims that Watkins may have been locked in a room and given only water, kept in a cage or tied up. According to investigators, his aunt, Stephanie Bell, and his grandmother, Janice Mowdy, may have actually forced the child to eat whatever was left or crawling around on the floor of their trailer just to survive.
A Spanish nightclub has scrapped plans to stage a raffle for breast enlargement surgery after an uproar over the event. The Pacha nightclub in the Mediterranean city of Valencia said it "apologised to all people and institutions which may have felt offended by this initiative", adding that "at no moment did it intend to disrespect anyone". Advertisements for the event - called Pretty Woman and set for December 5 - featured a picture of a woman with breasts who appeared to be holding a scalpel. Tickets had been set at 20 euros ($40) with the prize said to be worth 4,500 euros ($9,200). "A tribute to women. Buy your ticket and take part in the raffle for breast enlargement," the club said on its website. Club owners had said they were inspired by the popularity of such events in Argentina and stressed that the winner could choose to have laser hair removal instead of breast implants. But Health Minister Bernat Soria said that he had launched an investigation into the planned event. The minister said cosmetic surgery is regulated by health authorities and he expressed concern that minors would be able to participate. The official in charge of health in the Valencia region, Lourdes Bernal, meanwhile voiced her "indignation as a woman and as a health official" at the raffle, "which is an affront to the dignity of women". She also demanded the club cancel the event and said legal officers were looking into taking disciplinary measures against the club.
A man says his cell phone saved his life. A stray .45-caliber bullet hit R.J. Richard's chest while he was mowing the lawn — hitting so hard he thought it was a stone kicked out by his tractor. He pulled out the phone. It fell apart. The 68-year-old man was bruised. He said doctors told him two things prevented worse injury, maybe even death: the phone, and the fact that the bullet came in at an angle rather than head-on. Reports of pocket Bibles saving their owners' lives pop up every so often. Richard says he's sure that God told him to put the phone in his overalls chest pocket rather than a pants pocket as usual. He said that Saturday's incident increased his faith. He figured the bullet was fired by a hunter in woods near his 5-acre property.
This Day in History - 1997: Lead singer of INXS Michael Hutchence found hanged in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Sydney Australia. Police have denied that his death was due to Autoerotic Asphyxiation. Hutchence is survived by his daughter, Heavenly Hirani Tiger Lily.
Fair Sex Saturday
Of women and words.
Of women and love.
Of women and suprise.
Of women and luck.
Of women and pride.
Of women and softness.
Of women and shadows.
Of women and strength.
Of women and kink.
Of women and play.
Of women and colour.
Of women and fantasy.
Of women and flow.
Of women and darkness.
Of women and men.
Tee Em Eye Friday
The one thing I enjoy more than sex is food, next to food is knowledge, next to that is drugs. And while the most of my life has been a perpetual battle to seamlessly infuse all four elements I've come to the conclusion that some things should not be mixed. For example, food and drugs; you often end up eating more than your body readily deserves and as a result have to be laid on your back just so you can breath - true story. Drugs and sex; while the two have been heavily publicised and pushed by the rock & roll community it is exactly the kind of mix that leaves us with unwanted children, STD's and markings on your back that you weren't aware were made in the first place. As for knowledge and anything whatsoever, well, whilst being properly educated on sex appears to be the only exception it is never fun to know that a great deal of bacteria resides within the vaginal canal. Education also spoils drugs because you spend the whole time whilst high evaluating whether the kidneys and liver you're damaging is truly worth the rush. And food, the tall-poppy of the four elements of my joy that is thrashed like a lone bastard child by knowledge; no longer can I eat anything without worrying about the calorie content. Actually, scrap that. No longer can I eat anything without establishing its carbohydrate balance (whether it is a simple or complex carb), the amount of protein, the type of fats, the sodium content and the source and origin of produce and preparation. I don't know about you but I know now exactly why my breakfast and lunch taste so bitter and it is because I've read the labels and identify that whilst the calorie count is low, the protein, fibre and carb content is at a healthy level they both have an incredibly high amount of salt and now that is all I can taste. Gone are the days I smoke weed, eat an entire pantry full of food, have thoughtlessly exciting sex then sit back and read a book all because I've read far too many of them. All my life I've been told that knowledge would be all I needed. Someone lied.
Surrounding You Thursday
The hardest thing about being the one person everyone turns to for advice is that you can’t always turn back the favour when the situation changes; they come to you in pain, you help them and when you’re in pain yourself they’re nowhere to be seen or simply incapable of adequate assistance. The picture above and the one below speak volumes about how I am feeling at the moment; bored, alone and tired. And hairy. When I sleep I awake exhausted, when I stay up I awake confused and either way I remain weary throughout the day. I'm on a cycle of sedatives which I refused to take until recently and even now (with a three day detox every week) I'm finding my mind and body has become immune to what leaves me feeling further unsteady the day after anyway. Like foreskin stuck in a zipper no one wants to experience pain for too long. Disappointment in others and a lack of sympathy that was once so natural has become the norm and with each passing week I accept the damage people do to themselves further than the week before. It is a part of growing up, I'm told. And so I sulk for a few days, maybe a week, feel the darkness overshadow me and eventually I put the blade to my face, clean myself up and start again. I step back into the light surrounds me and guides me through this perfect storm we call life.
Who Are You Wednesday
During a moment of complete and utter boredom I found myself browsing the channels of BlogTV last night. It was here that I discovered that people of the internet are incredibly strange. Never mind the fact that I spent half an hour trying to get a woman to show me her elbows (everyone else was asking for tits), it was the two gypsy kids who were no older than 13 who really got me scared. Not only were they completely unaware of the predatorial nature of the internets it was their lack of education (because apparently all gypsy children are home schooled by Sesame Street characters) really left me wondering how parents could fail so badly and let their children stay up to 3AM advertising themselves on the internet so freely. In the same hour I saw a domestic erupt (fondly enough the lovers were fighting over how real a threat people on the internet were) and I met a girl who smoked weed (live on camera) and slept next to a slew of beer bottles and a copy of Mein Kampf. So, naturally I co-hosted a show with her and we kept our audience entertained while I berated her for living in Europe (she actually lives in Michigan) and she congratulated me for being Australian with a "cute" accent. Oddly enough, no comment about the hair. Speaking of which, I've got a bone to pick with all of you who told me that waxing was the way to go.
What I Like About You Tuesday
1. For some bizarre reason I want to be a single father. Don't ask me why. No, seriously, don't ask because I don't know. Why a single father is beyond me since I've always believed a child needs a set of parents so that any damage done to the mind, body and soul can be done evenly. I want some kind of crack baby too. You think I'm joking but I'm not. I want a child who has as much damage as possible, the kind that cries while it is sleeping and learns to stick people with a knife before it has even learned to walk. Maybe I want this kind of baby as a social experiment to see if being a Hitler type figure is inevitable no matter how much the amount of love is given in the early years. Maybe I should just get myself a puppy and be grateful that the worse that could happen is shit being smeared all over my couches.
2. Hunter S. Thompson did a remarkable thing with his life by ending it; he packed a pistol and chewed a bullet and that was that. Kids, stay away from drugs. Anyways, the point is that he took life into his own hands and ended it as he saw fit and while I think he is a complete an utter moron for doing so what was done with his remains was awesome; his ashes were shot out of a cannon. Now that is badass. When I die I want a tent set up around my coffin as it is being lowered. I want banging music, preferably Happy Hardcore and a disco ball with flashing lights and glow sticks. As an added bonus I want my coffin to be placed in a remote location with C4 strapped to my body, I then want all my guests to scream ALLAH AKBAR at the top of their lungs and then proceed to detonate me. And despite Sharon's wishes, I want my organs donated, just be sure to do it before the explosion.
3. Pornography has served me well throughout the years but for some reason I really don't like it. People who know me in person often get the impression that I have sex with whomever can tolerate me inside them for long enough but the fact of the matter is if I care about one person just enough and they feel right to be inside of (as oppose to gay sex, which is wrong, Woozie! GOD DISSAPPROVES!) then I lose interest in porn and other women almost instantly. I recall this one particular episode where I managed to score myself a girlfriend because she busted me watching porn (she'd been living with me at the time). Funny story; she had never seen it before and felt comfortable to be watching it with me. Long story short, we had sex and then later she would wake me up in the middle of the night to see if I wanted to watch porn with her and have sex. She'd actually get into positions so that she could watch the screen whilst we were doing it.
4. I love gardening but as a result of living in Australia I am scared shitless because you never know what may pop out from behind a shrub and bite your ass. And that’s the funny thing about wildlife in Australia, you never know what you're going to get. People often ask me why I eat kangaroo, well, it is because one growled at me when I was a kid. I just wanted to feed it some grass and be friendly but the six foot beast growled at me like he was some kind lion. As soon as I learned you could buy kangaroo meat on the shelves of a supermarket I bought as much of it home and fried the shit out of it. And for those of you who think a koala is cute..while that may be the case it is still an Australian animal and is more likely to strike than a snake, to which we have billions. And spiders. And crocodiles. And Nicole Kidman.
5. I can't seem to keep my car in one lane when I'm driving, I just veer left then right then left again while checking to see if I've accidently nudged a poor helpless bastard off the side of the road. I like to think it is because my right arm is more powerful than my left arm (and no, not because I spend the most of my waking hours masturbating) but rather because the right side of my body hates the left side and is trying to kill it the only way it knows how, vehicular manslaughter. Another thing I can't seem to do is slow down for speed humps; in my mind I see a speed hump and I see a chance to launch myself into space but it doesn't work like that all, instead the bottom of the car smashes the very ground many hundreds of others have leaving you to wonder if this is how engines systematically begin to rebel again the rest of the car.
6. There is a voice inside my head that tells me to punch people in the face. This isn't the result of any mental disorder I just often find myself bored and drift off into thinking, what would happen if I were to actually punch this person in the face? Never have I acted this out but I do imagine the confusion and trouble that would follow. Don't get me wrong, as far as a fantasy is concerned I will punch you in the face regardless of whether you're a man, woman or child. Keep me entertained or expect a fist sandwich with a side order of ass kickery! This also leaves me wondering if people have every thought of punching me between the eyes during a long boring rant about nothingness. I know alot of women who have openly wanted to hurt me but I do wonder how many have smiled while thinking how fast I will fall to the ground if they punch me hard enough.
7. My brain operates far better when things are put in list form. If, as a teenager, I was handed a list of things to do and not do during sex I'd have saved everyone a whole lot of time. Still amazed I haven't gotten anyone pregnant, is all I'm saying. Lists are what I use when I'm cooking and lists are what I use when trying to understand why the world is as messed up as it is. For example, take the top ten countries via economic stability and put that list up against a list of countries with military security and you will find an obvious problem between the two lists. World tragedy aside, sex is something that needs a list, always. When you first discover the opposite sex (GOD DISAPPROVES!) your list is simply, remove clothes, do it. But just once I'd like to get with someone and pull out an actual list and map and get to work on them like they were some archaeological discovery that I had to be gentle around so not to tarnish any valuables. For the lulz of course.
Nobody's Watching Monday
This comes as no surprise considering the very same was done to me over a decade ago but to see it happen to my dearest sister is somewhat heartbreaking; she has been kicked out of home. Now, I'll admit that I don't know the entire story and facts to my family are akin to herpes to a bar of soap; the two aren't ever associated with the other. And much like a sexually transmitted disease, being kicked out of a place you've called home for so long isn't something you ask for in a hurry, if at all. I'd love to say that I am in a position to help and advise my sister on how to deal with her current set of circumstances but the silly girl won’t let me help at all. And while I'm well aware that it is my company and advice she desires the unfortunate truth is that she carries the very same genes I do, which means good company and sound advice is something Santa Claus gives to the good children. My dearest baby girl also told me something that I'd never expected, that she'd been physically abused by the very same man (her real daddy, my step father) that had just now kicked her out of home. An amazing revelation considering his plea of innocence when we last spoke; this motherfucker had the nerve to lay me a sympathetic ear by telling me that what happened to me when I was thrown out of home "wasn't right." Well, no shit bitch. You played a major role in that and now you're kicking your very own daughter, you're own first born out on her arse. You slimy buck tooth knob jockey. You facilitated my sisters, your daughter’s downfall from her studies; once a straight a student and now a girl void of emotion who has seen more than she needs to. The you dare tell me that my very own piece of tragic history “wasn’t right”? Thats some brass balls stupidity right there. And so now I sit and wait for my sister to call when she needs help like a wounded puppy on the side of the road. I know she will eventually and I will more than willingly help. But forever I will wait for the moment I can steam roll a Mack truck over the home of my mother and step father only to remind them what it feels like to have everything taken from you for no Goddamn reason.
Week in Review Sunday
A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil." The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote. "Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."
About 800 small dogs, including Chihuahuas, terriers and Pomeranians, were seized from a triple-wide mobile home whose occupants were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals, authorities said Wednesday. Pima County sheriff's deputies and animal welfare officials who removed the dogs also found 82 caged parrots in the home in a rural area northwest of Tucson. Some dogs were pregnant and giving birth as they were taken to shelters in Tucson, said Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. Ninety-six dogs were taken from the house Monday and 700 more on Wednesday, she said. "The home was definitely in very bad condition, urine and feces all over the home, in the kitchen and bedroom, with a very strong odor," she said. "Obviously, 800 dogs in a triple-wide mobile home, they were packed in there. That being said, they were in pretty good shape." The elderly owners, who have not been identified, were apparently overwhelmed but have cooperated with authorities, sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said. No charges have been filed, but authorities continue to investigate.
Hang Mioku, now 48, had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28; hooked from the beginning she moved to Japan where she had further operations - mostly to her face. Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, but she would still look at herself in the mirror and think she was beautiful. Eventually the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. When she returned home to Korea the surgery meant Hang's features had changed so much that her own parents didn't recognise her. After realising that the girl with the grossly swollen face was indeed their daughter her horrified parents took her to a doctor. Once again the possibility that Hang had a mental disorder was raised and she started treatment. However, this treatment was too expensive for her to keep up and she soon fell back into old ways. Amazingly, she found a doctor who was willing to give her silicone injects and, what's more, he then gave her a syringe and silicone of her own so she could self-inject. When her supply of silicone ran out Hang resorted to injecting cooking oil into her face.
A new study details how spammers – the bane of our email inboxes – still make pots of money, despite only receiving a response to one in every 12,500,000 emails they spam out. The study, by a team of seven computer scientists from University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego (UCSD) infiltrated the Storm network, which uses hijacked home PCs to relay much of the junk email you spend your days wading through while wondering 'who the hell responds to this stuff?' Well. Now you know. One gullible idiot in 12,500,000 recipients. Or thereabouts. "The best way to measure spam is to be a spammer," claims the study. And they certainly picked the right network to hijack, with the Storm network having over one million machines under its control at one point. Using 'proxy bots' the team of researchers managed to control 75,869 hijacked machines to conduct their own fake spam campaigns. The researchers used two of the most popular ploys currently used by spammers – firstly offering a fake pharmacy site and, secondly, offering a herbal Viagra-style remedy to boost libido. "After 26 days, and almost 350 million email messages, only 28 sales resulted," says the research paper. Yet even with this apparently abysmal response rate of less than 0.00001 per cent, the researchers still estimate that the controllers of a network the size of Storm are still bringing in about $7,000 (£4,430) a day or $3.5m (£2.21m) over a year.
A Japanese man, depressed after his girlfriend dumped him, was arrested for failing to pay for a 500-kilometre taxi ride back to his home town, police said last night. Jobless Kazuhisa Mashiko, 23, was arrested after he refused to cough up the 367,000-yen ($5,845) fare for the eight-hour ride across Japan. "I wanted to go back to my home town, because my heart was broken by my girlfriend," he told officers in his home town in Ibaraki prefecture, according to a police official. But police were sceptical. "He said he took the free ride because he was dumped by his girlfriend but it just seems like an excuse to defend himself," the official said. He boarded the taxi Sunday evening in the western city of Himeji in Hyogo prefecture and went all the way to Ibaraki, north-east of Tokyo. He eventually agreed to make amends after the taxi driver went to police, who took Mashiko into custody. "I will pay the taxi fare through borrowing money from friends," he said tearfully, according to police.
A POLICE chief in a remote county of southwestern China has taken down 48 of his relatives, including brothers, cousins and a number of his wife's family, for various crimes. Laobulaluo, a police chief in Heizhugou township, Sichuan province, had seen 25 relatives either jailed, sent for "re-education through labor," or punished in other ways, according to a report posted on state news portal Chinanews.com. The police chief, who is in his 30s, is a member of China's Yi ethnic minority. Over a 10-year career, he had personally arrested a brother and two cousins after finding they had beaten local teachers at a primary school while drunk. Other family members were arrested after stealing a woman's handbag. The policeman's sense of duty had inflamed his relatives, some of whom had taken turns threatening his parents, and had "even secretly cut off the tails and slashed the legs of their cows," the report said. "In the first few years, I did not dare head back to my hometown to pass the New Year holiday, but now it's all right. Everyone understands and supports what I was doing at the time," the report quoted him as saying.
A Nigerian court said an 84-year-old Islamic preacher with 86 wives should be released from jail after he was held for failing to heed a call by local leaders to divorce all but four of the women, his lawyer said. The authorities in central Niger state had charged Mohammed Bello with "insulting religious" creed and "unlawful marriages" after local chiefs and Muslim leaders gave him a September 7, 2008 deadline to comply with sharia, Islamic law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives. He was jailed after he failed to comply. "The Federal High Court granted Bello unconditional release yesterday," defense lawyer David Ikotun told Reuters by phone from Abuja. Niger is one of 12 predominantly Islamic northern states that started a stricter enforcement of sharia eight years ago. Bello, who lives with his wives and about 170 children in the town of Bida, had pleaded not guilty to the charges at an Upper Sharia Court in the state capital Minna. But the judge refused him bail and ordered he be remanded in prison. Before his detention, the preacher had filed a petition at a Federal High Court in the Nigerian capital Abuja seeking to enforce his rights and to be protected from local chiefs and Muslim leaders who threatened to banish him if he failed to divorce 82 of his wives. "The judge also ordered that the inspector general of police provide him with adequate protection to ensure that his fundamental human rights are not infringed," Ikotun said, adding that Bello was still in custody. The Niger state government said it will appeal the judgment, the lawyer said. The court adjourned Bello's hearing to December 12.
A morbidly obese Canadian inmate has been released months ahead of schedule because his prison was not adequately suited to hold a man of his girth, a parole board said. Michel "Big Mike" Lapointe, 37, had pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in February and in May was sentenced to five years in prison, less 20 months served awaiting trial. But a judge later reduced his sentence because of hardships the 195-kilogram man claimed to have endured in a prison designed for smaller criminals. This week, the Quebec Parole Board granted him early parole, saying in its decision he had been jailed for 25 months under "difficult conditions due to his health." The parole board also noted that two halfway houses - residences designed to help convicts transition from jail back into society - had refused to take him in, and that he was well-behaved during his incarceration. Lapointe, a former accountant for a drug-trafficking ring, would not normally have been eligible for parole until February 2009, but according to his lawyer Clemente Monterosso, his health was deteriorating. His jail cell bed was 25 centimetres narrower than his body and he could not even sit on a chair, Monterosso said in May. "Finally it's over," Lapointe told the daily Journal de Montreal. "I want a normal life. I made some mistakes and I paid for them. Now, I will finally have a decent bed and a chair I can sit on."
This Day in History - 1940: The Nazis bomb Coventry, destroying the cathedral and killing several hundred people. British Intelligence knew ahead of time -- the German ENIGMA ciphers had been decoded -- but did not warn the town's citizens. Of course, Coventry was a legitimate military target, something the English government tried to play down.
The Fear Surrounding You Saturday
Are you afraid of colour?
Are you afraid of darkness?
Are you afraid of love?
Are you afraid of hope?
Are you afraid of purity?
Are you afraid of company?
Are you afraid of anarchy?
Are you afraid of words?
Are you afraid of confrontation?
Are you afraid of noise?
Are you afraid of distance?
Are you afraid of sanity?
Are you afraid of choice?
Are you alone with your fears?
And Then Some Friday
My first real relationship ended badly. Not the kind of badly that involves a car crashing through the wall during sex and killing my partner but rather the tragic cliché kind of badly that involves a young man who doesn't know when to call it a day. The problem wasn't so much that I couldn't read the tell-tale signs but rather that the signs were too damn sporadic to gauge; one day she wanted me and was fully in love and the next day she wanted nothing to do with me. It never made sense and as much as I tried to piece together the shattered pieces of my initial feelings for her I was always left wondering how exactly I continued to keep getting my testicles caught in the blender. When it comes to young love and generally anything young people do I often see the advice they're handed as far too callous. The raving consensus is that you're meant to make mistakes and get hurt to see what it’s like, well that’s just pure insanity. If someone had come along and said, 'Orhan, seriously dude, she is playing you for a fool.' I would've woken up to myself and shaken the shit out of her whenever she stringed me along for her own gains. The aftermath of it all truly ruined any relationship that followed and as a result I missed out on so much fun because I'd become so cautious and afraid of my own feelings. And I see this being the potential result of those of my friends who are in newfound relationships now; every one of them are openly making mistakes because they feel they have the time to, but at what point do their feelings come into play? It is easy for someone to suggest you make mistakes after they've been burned and recovered but it is never a good idea for anyone to suggest a person plunge straight into hot water without properly protecting themself. My point is almost a contradiction of itself, to ask for advice and then not follow it. And that there is the world of relationships. There is rarely any balance and there is often a great deal of struggle and confusion. This doesn't sound anything a young person should waste their time doing. Let your love be love until your both certain of balance, trust and equality.
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