Handcuffed kids steal U.S. border agent car - Yahoo! News
Wed Sep 26, 11:25 AM ET

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico.

Police in the Mexican border city of Mexicali said on Tuesday the three boys had been driving a pick-up truck on a remote Californian highway when a Border Patrol agent stopped them.

Suspicious they were carrying marijuana, he handcuffed them and put them in his patrol car while he searched their truck.

“As the agent was doing his search, he left the vehicle running and the keys in the ignition, so one of the lads, still wearing handcuffs, grabbed the steering wheel and they headed back to Mexico,” a police spokesman said.

The Border Patrol, which plays cat and mouse around the clock with illegal Mexican migrants and drug traffickers, confirmed the vehicle was stolen in southern California on Sunday and driven over the border near Mexicali.

Mexican police used a helicopter to locate the patrol vehicle in a remote agricultural area near the border.

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Wow…those kids should be hired by Hundini.

Cars smash up man’s home for 10th time - Yahoo! News
Thu Aug 30, 10:05 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man said Thursday he feared he may have built his own tomb after a vehicle ploughed into his house for the 10th time.

“If we stay, someone’s eventually going to kill us. We’re living in a time bomb,” Manfred Sedlazek, 59, told Reuters.

Sedlazek is reluctant to leave the house he built himself, which is on a bend of a busy road, but said it may be his only chance of survival.

Earlier this week, a 40-tonne truck blasted through the side of the red-brick house in the village of Karlshoefen, in northern Germany. Sedlazek returned home from shopping to find the shattered vehicle sticking out of his living room.

Police estimated the damage at more than 100,000 euros ($136,100).

Nine previous smashes into the two-story building Sedlazek shares with his wife have wrecked his kitchen, bedroom and garden, causing damage worth tens of thousands of euros.

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You would think after say the 3rd time you would either move or put barriers up…gee wiz.

Rich Russian tries to buy U.S. bomber at air show - Yahoo! News
Fri Aug 24, 5:32 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an air show near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday.

The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said.

An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million (249.5 million pounds) if it were to be sold on the spot.

“That is no problem. It is such a cool machine,” the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.

Russia’s new rich, who built fantastic fortunes trading commodities and contacts after the fall of the Soviet Union, have made a name for themselves as ostentatious purchasers of everything from British football clubs to Faberge eggs.

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I think the Russians are getting too much money from all their oil…Communism meets Capitalism.

Shoplifter nabbed trying to exchange stolen shoes - Yahoo! News
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police arrested a woman who stole a pair of Crocs shoes when she returned to the store hours later to exchange them because they did not fit her son, a police spokesman said on Friday.

“The store clerk identified her from security camera footage and called us,” said Amos Shimoni, police spokesman in the northern town of Safed.

“Instead of exchanging the shoes for another pair, she exchanged them for a criminal record.”

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Should really read the size before you steal…

German teenagers’ debut sex act interrupted by fire - Yahoo! News
Fri Aug 17, 4:48 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A teenage couple having sex for the first time were interrupted when candles set fire to the girl’s attic bedroom and forced them to flee naked from her parents’ house, German daily Bild reported on Friday.

The girl had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere for the occasion. But when the room suddenly became engulfed with flames, they had to make a hasty escape.

The couple, both 18, were pictured naked in the paper among the burned wreckage of the attic. A charred teddy had survived but the fire wrecked the entire top floor of the house causing around 100,000 euros (68,000 pounds) worth of damage

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Wow…had to run naked.   I bet their parents were pissed.

Biker fails to notice missing leg - Yahoo! News
Tue Aug 14, 9:53 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese biker failed to notice his leg had been severed below the knee when he hit a safety barrier, and rode on for more than a mile, leaving a friend to pick up the missing limb.
The 54-year-old office worker was out on his motorcycle with a group of friends in the city of Hamamatsu, west of Tokyo, on Monday, when he was unable to negotiate a curve in the road and bumped into the central barrier, the Mainichi Shimbun said.

He felt excruciating pain, but did not notice that his right leg was missing until he stopped at the next junction, the paper quoted local police as saying.

The man and his leg were taken to a hospital, but the limb had been crushed in the collision, the paper said.

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The pain doesn’t get to his brain fast enough…wow.

Goat crowned king of Ireland at fair - Yahoo! News
Fri Aug 10, 1:49 PM ET

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Jimmy, a feisty white mountain goat, was crowned king of Ireland on Friday at one of the country’s oldest fairs.

Dating back centuries, the Puck Fair is an annual festival of drinking, music and dancing celebrated in the town of Killorglin in southern Ireland.

Each year a male goat is caught in the surrounding mountains, paraded through the town to a beat of drums and pipes, and then placed in a 40-feet (12 metre) stand where he reigns as king for three days.

The origins of the fair are not totally known, but it always falls on August 10-12.

One theory suggests mountain goats alerted residents of the town to an impending attack by leader Oliver Cromwell’s forces in the 17th century.

Another says it may have pre-Christian links due to the goat being a pagan fertility symbol like the god Pan.

“Its origins go way back to the mists of time,” the fair’s financial controller Declan Falvey told Reuters. “There is a mingling of fact and fantasy.”

Around 100,000 to 150,000 visitors are expected to attend this year.

Falvey said precautions had been taken at the event, which also features separate horse and cattle fairs, due to a foot and mouth outbreak in England with disinfectant used, and mats placed wherever there were animals.

Jimmy himself will receive regal treatment, being fed regularly and checked by his own personal vet.

“At the end of 3 days, when he is dethroned, he is brought back up to the mountains and released to join his fellow nanny goats to resume his pastoral duties,” said Falvey.

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I thought the Irish didn’t like kings…

Fatter corpses cause hazard for mortuaries - Yahoo! News
Mon Aug 6, 9:10 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than two-thirds of Australians living outside major cities are overweight or obese, and extremely obese corpses are creating a safety hazard at mortuaries, according to two studies released Sunday.

Nearly three quarters of men and 64 percent of women were overweight in a study of people in rural areas. Just 30 percent of those studied recorded a healthy weight, said research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

“Urgent action is required at the highest level to change unhealthy lifestyle habits by improving diet, increasing physical activity and making our environments supportive of these objectives,” wrote the lead researcher, Professor Edward Janus.

The figures were much higher than for the general population, where statistics show about 3.2 million of Australia’s 21 million people are obese.

Meanwhile, pathologists are calling for new “heavy-duty” autopsy facilities to cope with obese corpses that are difficult to move and dangerously heavy for standard-size trolleys and lifting hoists.

The bodies presented “major logistical problems” and “significant occupational health and safety issues,” according to a separate study, which found the number of obese and morbidly obese bodies had doubled in the past 20 years.

Specially designed mortuaries would soon be required if the nation failed to curb its fat epidemic, providing “larger storage and dissection rooms, and more robust equipment,” said Professor Roger Byard, a pathologist at the University of Adelaide.

“Failure to provide these might compromise the post-mortem evaluation of markedly obese individuals, in addition to potentially jeopardizing the health of mortuary staff.”

In the past year, there have also been requests for larger crematorium furnaces, bigger grave plots as well as super-sized ambulances, wheelchairs and hospital beds.

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I say we start making soap from all the fat.

Nissan gets testy with drunk drivers - Yahoo! News
By Dan Sloan Fri Aug 3, 3:06 AM ET

OPPAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Beer-breaths beware. A new concept car with breathalyser-like detection systems may provide even greater traction for Japanese efforts to keep impaired drivers off the road.

Nissan’s alcohol-detection sensors check odour, sweat and driver awareness, issuing a voice alert from the navigation system and locking up the ignition if necessary.

Odour sensors on the driver and passenger seats read alcohol levels, while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures the perspiration of the driver’s palm when starting the car.

Other carmakers with detection systems include Sweden’s Volvo , which has developed technology in which drivers blow into a measuring unit in the seat belt before an engine can start.

But Nissan’s car includes a mounted camera that monitors alertness by eye scan, ringing bells and issuing a voice message in Japanese or English if a driver should pull over and rest.

The car technology is still in development, but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of detection systems will ultimately keep an eye on who’s behind the wheel.

“We’ve placed odour detectors and a sweat sensor on the gear shift, but for example if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver, the facial recognition system would be used,” said Doi.

Also keeping a short leash on drivers, car seat belts tighten if drowsiness is detected, while an on-road monitor checks if a car is keeping its lane properly.

Japan’s No. 3 carmaker has no specific timetable for marketing, but aims to yoke all technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.

Nissan’s Doi says they still have to distil exactly what impairment means: “If you drink one beer, it’s going to register, so we need to study what’s the appropriate level for the system to activate.”

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I just wonder if this will lower my car insurance.

But Mom! The other 61-year-olds get an allowance! - Yahoo! News
Thu Aug 2, 10:46 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - A Sicilian mother took away her 61-year-old son’s house keys, cut off his allowance and hauled him to the police station because he stayed out late.

Tired of her son’s misbehavior, the retiree in the central Sicilian city of Caltagirone turned to the police to “convince this blockhead” to behave properly, La Sicilia, one of Sicily’s leading newspapers, reported on Thursday.

The son responded by saying his mother did not give him a big enough weekly allowance and did not know how to cook.

“My son does not respect me, he doesn’t tell me where he’s going in the evenings and returns home late,” the woman was quoted as saying. “He is never happy with the food I make and always complains. This can’t go on.”

Police helped the squabbling duo make up and the two returned home together, with the son’s house keys and daily allowance restored.

Most Italian men still live at home late into their 30s, enjoying their “mamma’s” cooking, washing and ironing.

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Machismo…  Reminds me of that movie, Failure to Launch.  Are women raising boys and not making them men?