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.
___
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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Car gets repossessed with toddler still inside.

 SAN JOSE, Calif. – Police in California say a car dealer who repossessed a San Jose woman's Honda Accord left with something a bit more valuable: her 2-year-old son.

The child, Cyrus Lopez, was sleeping in the back of the car on Tuesday night when it was taken away because the boy's mother, Isabel Leuvano, was behind on her payments.

Leuvano says she was waiting for her daughter outside the running car when someone jumped in and drove off.

Police say the driver was 47-year-old Alberto Luna, the owner of Alberto's Auto Sales.

Officers located the toddler a half-hour later — about the same time Luna told authorities that he discovered the boy.

Sgt. Ronnie Lopez says kidnapping charges don't appear to be warranted. But he says Luna should have checked the car thoroughly.

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Russian drivers get free porn

 

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By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press Writer Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 15, 11:55 am ET

MOSCOW – Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips.
Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital's busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple's explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter (yard) display.
Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.
Passer-by Alyona Prokulatova told The Associated Press that she was "so shocked that I couldn't even shoot video or take a picture of it."
The screen's owner, 3 Stars, told the AP that a hacker attack was likely to blame. Police were investigating the incident.

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Man passes out at gas station. Meth lab in the back seat.

Police say a driver passed out in his car at a Tennessee gas station while a batch of methamphetamine was cooking in the back seat.
An employee at the gas station in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, called police because the car was sitting at the pump for about an hour on New Year's Day.
Police say a chemical process to make the drug was in progress. Some meth-making ingredients can be explosive.
Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader told The Daily News Journal that gas pumps were shut off as a precaution.
Thirty-one-year-old Nathan E. Beasley is being held on a $15,000 bond on charges of driving under the influence, driving on a suspended license, reckless endangerment and manufacturing meth. No attorney was listed in police records.

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Hypnotist accidentally hypnotizes himself.

A newly trained hypnotist accidentally put himself into a trance for five hours while practising in front of a mirror.

Helmut Kichmeier, 27, was found by wife, Joanna, staring into thin air in their north London home, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Kichmeier, whose stage name is Hannibal Helmurto, had learned to put himself into a trance to help him swallow swords on stage.

He had been taught the skill by hypnotherapist Dr Ray Roberts to assist in a new act for the Circus of Horrors show.

But as he practiced the skill in front of the mirror at 10am he set himself into a deep sleep until 3pm, when he was found by his wife.

It was only after she phoned Dr Roberts and put the receiver to Mr Kichmeier's head that he was able to be talked out of the trance.

Mrs Kichmeier said her husband had looked just like a zombie when she came into the room to find him.

She said: "I tried to ask him what was wrong but he didn't answer and it was then I looked at the sofa behind him and saw a book named Hypnosis Medicine of the Mind.

"It was opened on page 45 and a chapter named hypnotic anaesthesia and I realised there was something wrong.

"It was only then I noticed a letter next to the book a letter from his mentor, Dr Roberts, and I knew what I had to do."

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Pimpin' it Aussie style. Pimp pays prostitute in chicken nuggets.

From the Australian:Pimp pays prostitute in chicken nuggets.

Wow, they are really harsh in the outback. This guy and his girlfriend have a brilliant idea to 'pimp out' a 16 year old girl so they can pay the rent on their apartment. They get rich, she gets chicken nuggets. This is so wrong..it's almost right.

Ronald Vikash Gander, 27, and his 16-year-old girlfriend devised a plan to prostitute a teenage girl so they could afford the weekly $1050 rent on a serviced inner-Brisbane apartment, the Brisbane
District Court was told today.

The court was told the girl made $4500 for having sex with five middle-aged men in June last year.
Gander and his girlfriend used the money for living expenses and paid the girl nothing except for the occasional box of chicken nuggets.

Wow. Just wow. I think pimps in America could learn a few things from these 2 master criminals. It's best to start them young. They'll work for peanuts, or in this case crappy fast food.

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Boy draws Jesus on the cross. Gets booted from school and told to see a shrink.

A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.



The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross. The boy wrote his name above the cross.



“As far as I’m concerned, they’re violating his religion,” the incredulous father said.

He requested that his name and his son’s name be withheld from publication to protect the boy.



The student drew the picture shortly after taking a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat site in Attleboro. He made the drawing in class after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas, the father said.



“I think what happened is that because he put Xs in the eyes of Jesus, the teacher was alarmed and they told the parents they thought it was violent,” said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant with the Associated Advocacy Center.



Saunders is working with the boy’s parents after a mutual acquaintance referred them to her.



“When I got that call, I was so appalled that I had to do something,” Saunders said.

“They weren’t looking at the fact that this is an 8-year-old child with special needs,” she added. “They made him leave school, and they recommended that a psychiatrist do an evaluation.”



The school, in fact, required the evaluation before the boy could return, the father said.

Maxham School principal Rebecca Couet referred all questions on the matter to the superintendent’s office.



Superintendent Julie Hackett said district policy prevents her from discussing a “confidential matter regarding a student.”



“Generally speaking, we have safety protocols in place,” Hackett said. “If a situation warrants it, we ask for outside safety evaluations if we have particular concerns about a child’s safety. We followed all the protocols in our system.”



Hackett refused to specifically discuss the student’s drawing or the school’s reaction to it.

The father was flabbergasted when he learned his son had to undergo an evaluation.

“When she told me he needed to be psychologically evaluated, I thought she was playing,” he said.



The man said his son, who gets specialized reading and speech instruction at school, has never shown any tendency toward violence.



“He’s never been suspended,” he said. “He’s 8 years old. They overreacted.”



The boy made the drawing and was sent home from school on Dec. 2. He went for the psychological evaluation — at his parents’ expense — the next day and was cleared to return to school the following Monday after the psychological evaluation found nothing to indicate that he posed a threat to himself or others.



The boy, however, was traumatized by the incident, which made going back to school very difficult, the father said. School administrators have approved the father’s request to have the boy transferred to another elementary school in the district.



This is not the first time in recent years that a Taunton student has been sent home over a drawing. In June 2008, a fifth-grade student was suspended from Mulcahey Middle School for a day after creating a stick figure drawing that appeared to depict him shooting his teacher and a classmate.



The Mulcahey teacher also contacted the police to take out charges in the 2008 incident.

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Italian man hypnotizes grocery clerk and steals her money.

All this time I thought you had to go out and buy a gun, get a ski mask, plan for days. Oh no, all you need is an epic beard and some cheap sunglasses(ZZ Top would be proud)and Viola! you to can rob an Italian grocery store using hypnosis.

This may turn out to be a well planned inside job, but more than likely this bearded Bogart is just a really smooth talker.

READ MORE - Italian man hypnotizes grocery clerk and steals her money.