Farmer fires home-made cannon to defend land

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese farmer has declared war on property developers who want his land, building a cannon out of a wheelbarrow and pipes and firing rockets at would-be eviction teams, state media said on Tuesday.
Yang Youde, who lives on the outskirts of bustling Wuhan city, in central Hubei province, says he has fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses ammunition made from locally sold fireworks.
"I shot only over their heads to frighten them," the China Daily quoted him saying of his attacks on demolition workers sent to move him off his land. "I didn't want to cause any injuries."
The rockets can travel over 100 meters, and exploded with a deafening bang, the official paper added. It did not say if anyone had been injured.
His approach is more aggressive than most, but Yang's problem is a common one.
Anger over property confiscation is one of the leading causes of unrest in China, with many people forced to give up homes and land to make way for anything from roads to luxury villas.
Yang says the local government has offered him 130,000 yuan ($19,030) for his fields, on which they want to erect "department buildings." He is asking for five times that amount.
Construction ditches have already been dug across the land of less obstinate neighbors.
A first eviction team attacked him in February after his rockets ran out, but local police came to his rescue. In May he held off 100 people by firing from a makeshift watchtower.
The government is planning to reform property confiscation rules, but rights groups say the changes do not go far enough to address the potentially destabilizing issue.
(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Scientists use Calvin Klein cologne to lure jaguars

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters Life!) – Biologists tracking jaguars in the Guatemalan jungle might smell nice but it's all in the name of science, with researchers finding the Calvin Klein cologne Obsession for Men attracts big cats.
Biologists Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program say they use hidden cameras as a primary source for observing and tracking jaguars in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve.
But they also rely on Obsession for Men, a cologne known for its complex scent, to help lure then research and hopefully ultimately preserve jaguars in the Central American country.
"The method we are using to study the jaguars here in Guatemala is a non-invasive method which is based on photographing the individuals by using camera traps," Moreira told Reuters Television.
"It has been very useful using Obsession (for Men) to get the jaguars in front of these camera traps ... and that allows us to estimate with greater confidence the genders and the numbers that live in each studied site."
The discovery that Obsession for Men acted as a magnet for jaguars was the result of an experiment by the WCS's Bronx Zoo in New York.
The WCS was looking for ways to get cheetahs in front of camera traps, and, after several years of testing with different fragrances, found spraying the musky Obsession For Men near the heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras drew the cats for longer than other scents.
They also tried out about 23 other fragrances but Obsession for Men kept the cats' attention for longest with Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps coming second.
The practice made its way down to Guatemala, where Garcia and Moreira said they have been recording similar success in the wild since 2007, allowing them to track jaguars and even record their mating rituals.
Garcia said the results will be invaluable to conservation efforts.
"These camera traps help us to identify how many jaguars are living in this area ... (and) helps us to have control over the population and lets us say to the government, to the public, that Laguna del Tigre still deserves conservation," he said.
The WCS said it tentatively plans to expand the use of the cologne in programs in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in coming years.
(Writing by Reuters Television, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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U.S. woman striving to be world's heaviest

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Man arrested in Ga. in car he'd reported stolen

ROME, Ga. – Police arrested a 24-year-old man they said was found driving his car after he'd reported it stolen. Officers at the Floyd County Jail said Wednesday that Ryan Lance Roland, who was arrested Saturday, was still in jail after being granted bond of $2,700 on charges of false report of a crime and driving under the influence.
Police said Roland, who was staying at a motel, had told officers someone had entered his room when he was out and his car had been stolen.
Officers watched for the 2001 Acura Integra on the road and spotted it — with Roland behind the wheel.
Roland was jailed after an alcohol test. Police said he told them a friend had borrowed the car but failed to return it when promised.
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Information from: Rome News-Tribune, http://www.romenews-tribune.com

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Man bites man in fight over dogs.

 

Image by piks4kicks via Flickr

NEW CITY, N.Y. – It wasn't quite man-bites-dog, but there were men and there were dogs and there was biting. A sheriff's office said Monday that one man bit another during a fight over a couple of dogs at a park in suburban New York City. Rockland County sheriff's Capt. William Barbera said two dog owners got into it Sunday night. One didn't like the way their pets were playing at a dog park in New City, about 30 miles north of New York.
Barbera said that a third man tried to break up the fight and that one of the combatants bit him on the wrist. He said that no one has been arrested but that the case is still being investigated.

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Man allegedly sets blaze because of late dinner (AP)

Man allegedly sets blaze because of late dinner
(AP)
Kanawha County authorities said a marital spat over a late dinner has landed a man in jail on an arson charge. Lt. Sean Crosier of the Sheriff's Department said 60-year-old Guy Edward Jones came home Sunday and got angry because his wife, Beverly Jones, didn't have dinner on the table.
Crosier said the couple fought and Beverly Jones ran to a neighbor's house. Crosier said she turned and saw flames coming out of the basement and her husband exiting through the basement door.
Guy Jones was in the South Central Regional Jail on Monday afternoon in lieu of $50,000 bond. It could not be determined whether he had a lawyer.

I can only assume that the man went down in to the basement to grab more beer and was attacked by fiery demons from hell. They fought, and in the end he killed the demon. Unfortunately, the demon, in it's death throws caught the curtains on fire and the whole place went up in a blaze of glory. It's a pity he never got to have that beer.

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Bank Robber gives teller apologetic hold up note, than waits for the police to arrive.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland police said a man handed an apologetic robbery note to an employee at a FedEx Kinko's store, then waited for police to arrive. Employee Paul Rhoney said the note said: "This is a robbery, I'll wait outside for police, sorry."

Police Detective Mary Wheat said responding officers found the 46-year-old man outside the store Tuesday morning and took him into custody.

Wheat said no robbery charges will be pursued because the man did not have a weapon and didn't carry out a robbery. Police believe he simply wanted to go to jail.

The man was taken to the Multnomah County Jail for investigation of initiating a false report.

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