Florida Man arrested over roaches

Florida - A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly purchased 500 illegal cockroaches through the Internet. Derek Alan Rader allegedly forged a permit giving him permission to purchase the roaches, although it was unclear what he intended to do with them. Blaptica dubia are a native of South and Central America, and are considered an invasive species in Florida, which officials said has the largest number of roach species in the United States. The roaches, also called the Guyana Orange Spotted Cockroach, are considered a gourmet reptile food because of their soft shells and high protein content.  More…

Souvenir condoms rolled out for UK royal wedding

Britain - While Britain has a public holiday to celebrate Prince William’s wedding, one company is taking the party one step further with souvenir condoms that urge lovers to “lie back and think of England”. Crown Jewels Condoms of Distinction is producing special celebration packs that bear the slogan: “Like a royal wedding, intercourse with a loved one is an unforgettable occasion”. Critics have dismissed the novelty condoms as “tasteless”. Military helicopter pilot William, second in line to the throne, is to marry his university sweetheart Kate Middleton at London’s Westminster Abbey.  More…

Woman killed her children because they were mouthy

Tampa - With a .38-caliber revolver she bought five days before, Julie Schenecker shot her 13-year-old son twice in the head as they drove home from soccer practice. She then parked the family’s SUV in the garage of their New Tampa home, went upstairs and shot her 16-year-old daughter in the back of the head and in the face as she did her homework on the computer. She told investigators she killed her children because they talked back, they were mouthy and she was tired of it. Schenecker, 50, was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder. She showed no remorse. More…

Woman who dumped condiments in book drop pleads guilty

Reuters - An Idaho library has closed the book on a string of condiment attacks against its book-drop now that the ketchup-wielding criminal has been jailed, a Boise librarian said on Saturday.more

University awards first Beatles degree (Reuters)

Reuters - A Canadian woman has become the first person in the world to graduate with a Masters degree in Beatles studies.more

Single mom run over by own car gets new set of wheels

WICHITA, Kan. — You could call it a twist of fate or perhaps a fortunate accident. But Caressa Jones says if she hadn't been run over by her own car last year, she wouldn't have ...more

Report of armed man leads to lockdown at Wal-Mart

Missouri - A report of an armed man acting erratically in the Wal-Mart parking lot led to the store being temporarily locked down before Kirksville Police responded to and diffused the situation with no injuries. A passerby stopped a Kirksville Police officer and said they had seen an individual acting erratically in a truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  The passerby believed the individual had a gun to his head. The individual was talking on a cell phone at the time of the incident. It’s likely that is the object the passerby identified as a gun.  More…

10,000 More Strippers Needed for Super Bowl

Dallas - A North Texas strip joint manager is looking to hire at least 100 more strippers to fill what he calls an exotic dancer shortage plaguing Dallas-Fort Worth because of the upcoming Super Bowl XLV. John Walsh said he is not the only understaffed exotic club in the area. In fact, Walsh said, DFW’s 60 or so adult establishments are short a total of 10,000 exotic dancers. Arlington city officials said they expect to host 300,000 visitors during Super Bowl weekend. More…

Unluckiest man struck by lightning

Florida - Four years ago, John Wade Agan told deputies he was robbed at gunpoint in his taxicab, roughed up and stuffed into the trunk of the car. Three years ago, he drove to a fire station with a butcher knife sticking out of his chest. Two years ago, in a news conference from his hospital bed, he told the world he’d been bitten by two different snakes at the same time. Now, he was struck by lightning during the severe storm that hit the area. He was leaning over a metal kitchen sink, holding a corded phone up to his ear, when he heard a loud boom. He said he blacked out. He said he awoke surrounded by paramedics, finding his right shoe off and a big hole in his sock. It felt like it was on fire. More…

Man seeks protection from sex-mad wife

Germany - A desperate Turkish man living in Germany has turned to the police for protection from his insatiable wife’s constant demands for sex. The man came to his local police station in southwestern Germany saying that he had been sleeping on the sofa for the past four years to escape the clutches of his wife of 18 years and mother of their two children. He says his wife keeps coming into the living room demanding that he perform his marital duties. He asked for police help in getting some sleep at night.  More…

Urinal Games Being Tested

Japan - Japanese entertainment company Sega has taken Japanese toilets to an entirely new level by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals. Four types of “Toylets” games are available to be played during a test period ending this month in four male bathrooms in pubs and game arcades. The project is aimed at drawing attention to digital advertisements. Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor and a small digital LCD display that is placed at eye level. Digital advertisements are shown after the games.  More…

Man takes sex dolls on world tour

Lodon - A Canadian man is on a tour across the world and imagine who is accompanying him - six sex dolls, each wearing glamorous outfits, lingerie, wigs and stilettos. Dave Hockey, 57, has taken his silicone beauties on trips across Britain and the US and insists his wife doesn’t mind. Dave has traveled with his fake girlfriends across Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. Dave needs a wheelchair to move them in and out of hotels or tourist attractions.  More…

Lawmaker Proposes Ban On Talking And Walking

New York - After targeting distracted drivers, some New York lawmakers want to go after distracted walkers. They are looking to ban them from using iPods, music players and cell phones while walking and crossing the street. Some said they object to the move as an intrusion by government into the everyday lives of people -  the nanny state syndrome. “When people are doing things that are detrimental to their own well being, then government should step in,” Brooklyn Sen. Karl Kruger said. The fine for violating the law would be $100, which supporters hope will be enough to stem what they think is a disturbing trend - a slight increase in fatalities.  More…

'Godzilla-like creature' nabbed in Calif. town

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Animal services officers often get calls reporting "huge," monstrous reptiles, only to arrive and find an itty-bitty garden snake. The 5-foot Monitor lizard....more

Oddly colored ice smells like human waste

SNYDER, N.Y., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Residents of a New York town said they believe smelly, oddly colored ice may have come from an airplane restroom.Oddly colored ice smells like human waste

Woman hanged devil dog from tree

 North Carolina - A woman has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly hanging her nephew’s pit bull from a tree with an electrical cord and burning its body after it chewed on her Bible. Animal control officers said that 65-year-old Miriam Smith told them she killed a female dog named Diamond because it was a ‘devil dog’ and she worried it could harm neighbourhood children. Smith is charged with ill treatment of animals in general, torture, according to an arrest warrant. She faces 180 days to five years in prison if convicted.  More…

Whale shuts down ship traffic for a day

Florida - The U.S. Coast Guard said ship traffic was suspended at about 10 a.m. after the whale was spotted entering the river and swimming between the jetties and the Mayport basin, The Jacksonville Florida Times-Union reported. Federal law prohibits approaching within 500 yards of a North Atlantic right whale.  More…

Vicious Attack On Wendy’s Worker

New York - A fight broke out at a Wendy’s in Queens Village, leaving one of the workers seriously injured. The disturbing scene from inside the Wendy’s was captured on a phone. In the video, you can see the cashier get pummeled to the ground by teenage girls. It started with one girl attacking the woman and a large group of them jumped in and punched her. The worker said it all began when the group started fighting and throwing food. She was behind the counter when her co-worker walked over to try and stop them. The woman who was attacked suffered a concussion and is currently unable to work.  More… 

Human-biting monkey back on the loose

MISHIMA, Japan, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Japanese officials say a monkey who bit more than 100 people the last time she escaped has escaped again.Human-biting monkey back on the loose

Calif. man creating marijuana soda

SOQUEL, Calif., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A California man said he is designing medical marijuana-infused soda pop, a product he has no intention of trying.Calif. man creating marijuana soda

Woman plunges from 23rd floor, survives

Argentina - Witnesses say they saw a woman throw herself from the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel and survive. The woman landed in a sitting position on the roof of a taxi whose driver got out just before the impact deeply dented his roof and shattered the windshield. The woman, a 30-year-old Argentine, was rushed to the nearby Hospital Argerich, where she was being operated on for injuries including internal bleeding and broken hips and ribs.  More…

Afghan moms give infants opium to keep them quiet

Afghanistan - In a far flung corner of northern Afghanistan, Aziza reaches into the dark wooden cupboard, rummages around, and pulls out a small lump of something wrapped in plastic. She unwraps it, breaking off a small chunk as if it were chocolate, and feeds it to four-year-old son. It’s his breakfast — a lump of pure opium. “If I don’t give him opium he doesn’t sleep,” she says. “And he doesn’t let me work.”  More… 

Charity fund backed by celebrities eaten up by corruption

Geneva - A $21.7 billion development fund backed by celebrities and hailed as an alternative to the bureaucracy of the United Nations sees as much as two-thirds of some grants eaten up by corruption. Much of the money is accounted for with forged documents or improper bookkeeping, indicating it was pocketed. Donated prescription drugs wind up being sold on the black market.  More…

Russians Asked to Vote on Whether to Bury Lenin

Moscow - A new poll sponsored by the pro-Kremlin party is asking Russians to vote on whether it’s time to bury Vladimir Lenin. The embalmed body of the man who founded the Soviet Union still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the communist state collapsed. The contentious issue is raised almost every year around the anniversary of his death on Jan. 21, 1924.  More…

Inmate accused of trying to hire hit man, faces 30 years

Illinois - Mikhail “Mike”  Gelzin, 53, was convicted and sentenced to 180 days at the Cook County Jail after pleading guilty to a domestic violence arrest. He was investigated after members of the sheriff’s criminal intelligence unit learned that he may have been trying to find a hit man to kill the woman he had originally been arrested for battering and harassing. An investigator posed as a hit man and met with Gelzin, who offered the undercover officer $15,000 for the hit but later talked the officer down to $12,000.  More…

Bomb squad training gets realistic

Manila - Bomb squad training for Philippine police became a little too realistic when a grenade went off during a lecture, injuring six officers. An instructor was teaching other officers how to handle explosive devices such as land mines and home-made bombs when the accident occurred. The instructor was demonstrating how to defuse a grenade when he accidentally pulled the safety pin.  More…

Law firm sues Taco Bell - Beef is not beef

Alabama - The lawsuit claims the company uses false advertising on its menu and in its advertisements. Taco Bell beef is water, Isolated Oat Product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasonings. The USDA defines beef as flesh of cattle.  More…

2 in 1,000 awake during anesthesia

Germany - For every 1,000 patients under anesthesia, two at most wake up during their operation, which can leave a patient traumatized, German researchers say. Petra Bischoff of the Ruhr University in Bochum and Ingrid Rundshagen of the Charite Berlin say being aware of things happening during surgery — unintended awareness — and being able to recall them later is classified as an occasional complication of anesthesia.  More…

Drug dealers advertised their services with business cards

New York - A pair of suspected drug dealers who advertised their services on tongue-in-cheek business cards were charged with selling cocaine and pot to NYU students and Manhattan partiers. Thomas Zenon, 40, and Miguel Guzman, 43, were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court for running an expansive 24-hour enterprise that fielded hundreds of delivery requests a night. It catered to more than 200 clients. More…

Braving the cold for taste of commando life (Reuters)

Reuters - Over a thousand South Korean civilians braved sub-zero temperatures around the country to take part in boot camps run by a special commando unit, hoping to get into shape and improve their self-discipline.more

Town bans cash payments for services

DISCOVERY BAY, Calif., Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Officials in a California town voted to ban cash transactions for services including water bills, park reservations and public records requests.more

Woman Arrested In Razor Blade Assault At Mall

 Delaware - According to investigators, a 20-year-old Wilmington woman and another individual went to the mall to pick up Lynique Crummell, 21, and her one-month-old son. While at the entrance to the mall, Crummell and the 20-year-old victim became involved in a verbal altercation. During the altercation, Crummell began striking the victim in the face with her fist. The victim suddenly discovered she was bleeding from the face. Crummell is alleged to have had a razor blade in her hand when she was striking the victim. More…

Ads coming to airport’s bathroom mirrors

Chicago - Advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor said video and still advertisements are coming to the restroom mirrors at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Mirrus Founder Brian Reid said the mirrors will display advertisements on the entire surface when no one is standing in front of them and the ads will shrink into a corner when someone approaches the sink.  More…

Chinese lantern Killed my Goat

Warwick - A goat breeder from Warwick is calling for a ban on Chinese lanterns after one of her animals died when it ate a piece of metal wire. Fay Ogden discovered nine-month-old Toggenburg goat Holly with blood around her mouth at her farm in Rowington. Three days later the goat died and in a post mortem vets found a piece of metal wire from a lantern had punctured her throat.  More…

Brothers arrested after baseball bat fight

SANDUSKY, Ohio, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Police in Ohio said two brothers were arrested after allegedly giving one another head wounds with a baseball bat.More

Texting woman falls into mall fountain

Pennsylvania  - A Pennsylvania woman whose fall into a mall fountain while texting went viral on YouTube said she’s considering suing. “I didn’t get an apology, what I got was, ‘At least nobody knows it was you.’ But I knew it was me,” Cathy Cruz Marrero, 49, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Nearly 2 million people have watched his client stumble obliviously into the fountain.  More… 

AG to Investigate MTV for Child Pornography

USA - Is MTV a purveyor of kiddie porn? The Parents Television Council wants to find out. The media watchdog group called on lawmakers and law enforcement officials to open an investigation regarding possible child pornography and exploitation on the cable network’s new series “Skins.” A series of panicked meetings took place at MTV headquarters, where one executive allegedly even discussed the possibility of criminal charges and jail time.  More…

Restaurant serving up cat tacos for $8.95 each

Arizona - An Arizona restaurant said it is accepting pre-orders for tacos made with the meat from African lions. Tucson’s Boca Tacos y Tequila, which previously made headlines with tacos made from kangaroo, alligator, python, rattlesnake, elk and Rocky Mountain oysters. Food and Drug Administration regulations allow for the sale of lion and other game meat provided the species is not endangered.  More…

Burglars snort man’s ashes, thought it was cocaine

Florida - The ashes were taken from a woman’s home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores. The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of her father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with electronic equipment and jewelry. It was discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine.  More…

Widow, 84, bats burglar with cane

SOUTHAMPTON, England, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A burglar who was caught by an 84-year-old widow armed with a cane and her 59-year-old daughter has been sentenced to three years in an English prison.more

Man charged with attempted murder for spitting on nurse

Alaska - An Alaskan man faced an attempted murder charge after allegedly spitting on a female hospital worker. Andre LaFrance was slapped with the serious offense because he has hepatitis C, a contagious virus that infects the liver. State troopers in Palmer, Alaska, say the 29-year-old “intentionally transferred a dangerous bodily fluid” onto the hospital employee.  More…

Police Arrest Man At Airport For Taking Pictures

Miami, Florida - A man was arrested and turned over to federal authorities after police said he was taking photos of sensitive areas inside and outside of a terminal at Miami International Airport. Oluwole Aboyade was seen walking through the airport and taking pictures. Because Miami International Airport is a public facility, anyone is allowed to take video and pictures inside.  More…

Police Pick up Drunken Owl

Germany - German police said they had discovered a paralytic owl that appeared to have drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles. A woman walking her dog alerted the police after seeing the bird sitting by the side of the road oblivious to passing traffic. The Brown Owl didn’t appear to be injured and officers quickly concluded that it had had one too many.  More…

Golden Globes Presenter disappeared

USA - Ricky Gervais today insisted he had not been carpeted at the Golden Globes after subjecting a room full of speechless American stars to lewd jibes at the Golden Globes’ ceremony. He vanished from the stage in the middle of the awards show, leading to speculation that he had been carpeted. Viewers said that when he returned some time later he looked subdued.  More… 

Unknown woman joins bachelor in bed

Canada - A Canadian bachelor on Vancouver Island didn’t appreciate a naked woman he’d never met waking him up and sliding into his bed. The unidentified man called police to report the mystery visit around 3:20 a.m. The man reported a woman came into his bedroom, promptly disrobed, slid into the bed next to him and fell asleep.  More…  

Authorities seek to snare stray pigs

SOUTHAMPTON, England, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- British authorities said they were working to round up stray pigs seen wandering Southampton, England, before the animals cause a traffic collision....More

Is riding a horse while drunk legal?

Montana - A Montana Department of Transportation public safety video that features a horse picking up a rider at a bar is intended as a metaphor to encourage drinkers to get a ride home. Helena Police Chief Troy McGee says he’s received many calls from residents wanting to know if riding a horse while under the influence is legal. McGee tells the Independent Record newspaper that it is.  More… 

Woman used a fish to attack two men ice fishing

North Shores - The men, both in their early 20s, said they were ice fishing in a shanty when they were approached by a woman who wanted to urinate on the ice. While their backs were turned the woman struck the first complainant in the head with a fish. The female then approached them and struck the other man across the face with a fish. She claimed that she was upset because the other men put their shanty too close to her shanty.  More…

Man Shot Over French Fry Argument

 Philadelphia - A man was shot after an apparent argument over fast food. The two men were in a parked car eating fast food when an argument broke out over french fries. The two men got out of the car, started fighting, and investigators say that’s when one of them pulled a gun and shot the other.  More… 

Couple floating on dolls rescued on Yarra

Police say the 19-year-old couple had just passed Pound Bend Tunnel at Warrandyte North when the water became turbulent and the woman lost control of her grip on the doll about 4.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday..more

Notorious Russian prison to get tanning beds

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW -- A centuries-old Russian prison notorious for its primitive conditions will soon offer inmates a new perk - tanning beds.tanning bed

Elephant kills trainer, zoo says just an accident

Tennessee - An inquiry is underway after an 8,000lb elephant at a Tennessee zoo backed a trainer into a wall and crushed her to death. Knoxville Zoo said today that it had temporarily closed its elephant exhibit, while the rest of the zoo remained open. But a zoo spokesman insisted the death of 33-year-old Stephanie James was nothing more than a terrible and tragic accident and the elephant would not be punished or disciplined in any way.  More…

Pets live in torment among corpses

New York - Their mouths were muzzled and wrapped in so much tape they couldn’t breathe, bark or eat. Their fur was matted with filth and the house was crammed with so much trash, it hid the floor. A Long Island mother and daughter were arrested yesterday after more than a dozen tortured dogs and cats were rescued from a filth-riddled Rockville Centre home that included more than two dozen decomposing animal remains. More…