1469 replies to this topic

[Strategia]

Quote

FBI wiretap cut off for unpaid bill
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A telephone company cut off an FBI international wiretap after the agency failed to pay its bill on time, according to a U.S. government audit released on Thursday.

The Justice Department's inspector general faulted the FBI for poor handling of money used in undercover investigations, which it said made the agency vulnerable to theft and mishandled invoices.

It cited the case in which a wiretap under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs electronic spying in terrorism and intelligence cases, was disrupted due to an overdue bill.

"Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence, including an instance where delivery of intercept information required by a ... FISA order was halted due to untimely payment," the audit said.

Inspector general spokeswoman Cynthia Schnedar said she could provide no additional details on the disrupted wiretap. Much of the report contained sensitive law-enforcement information and was not released, she said.

The FISA program, denounced by critics as overly intrusive and unconstitutional, is up for renewal in Congress. But lawmakers are bogged down over the scope of the program and liability protections for telephone companies that took part in a domestic eavesdropping program launched by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks.

The audit followed a 2006 case in which an FBI employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $25,000 in confidential case funds intended for undercover telecoms services.

The FBI acknowledged "widespread agreement" that its 1980s era accounting system was inadequate and said it was working to improve it.

"The FBI will not tolerate financial mismanagement," it said.

(Editing by David Alexander and Chris Wilson)

[Soul]

I saw that story before and it's LOL .

Edited by Soul, 13 January 2008 - 17:50.

[CodeCat]

It's strange how they would cut off the line because of profit, but not because of what's right or wrong.

Some people's hearts are really in their wallets...

[Strategia]

Quote

"Girl" at school was 39-year-old man

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl's uniform and a long wig, local police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the Internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers, the paper said.

They also screamed, forcing the man to flee, losing his wig in the process. A school clerk pursued him and stopped him at a nearby riverbank, the paper said.

Police confirmed the arrest of the man in school uniform and wig but declined to give further details.

[Soul]

LAWL .

[Jok3r]

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Doughnuts key to burglary


ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — When two guys in cowboy garb offered the sheriff's deputies doughnuts, and then the deputies investigated a burglary involving doughnuts and the prints of cowboy boots, it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to crack the case.

"The officers kind of put two and two together," Deputy District Attorney Dave Hopkins said Tuesday at the sentencing of Adam Hancock, 21, of Baker City on theft and burglary charges.

Sheriff's deputies reported they found Hancock and his cousin, Vincent Whitely, 19, in Roseburg on Jan. 11, and the pair offered the officers doughnuts, which they declined.

Shortly afterward, the officers investigated a burglary at a store from which cigarettes, candy, chewing gum and the telltale doughnuts were missing. And there were boot prints.

His attorney said Hancock had mental disabilities and was "easily led." Hancock told the judge he'd been drinking whiskey before the burglary and vowed to make restitution of $895. He got two 10-day jail terms with credit for time served.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-...ts-oregon_N.htm

[Strategia]

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Loaded gun found in stroller

BERLIN (Reuters) - A stroller sold in an Internet auction in Germany came complete with a deadly plaything -- a pistol loaded with six bullets.

A young couple from the northern town of Verden found the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol in a side pocket of the pram after collecting it from nearby Hamburg. They called the police.

Officers searched the house of the 39-year-old seller, who could not explain how the weapon had got there.

"He said it didn't belong to him," police said Wednesday.

Kids these days.....

[Dauth]

Radio 4 is the home of intelligent speech on the radio according to the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.u...ent/7318173.stm

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Radio 4 news hit by giggling fit
Green is a familiar voice to Radio 4 listeners
Green's laughter Hundreds of listeners have contacted BBC Radio 4 after newsreader Charlotte Green dissolved into giggles while reading a bulletin on Today.

She lost control after playing a clip of the oldest known recording of the human voice.

Presenter James Naughtie intervened as she struggled to tell listeners about the death of screenwriter Abby Mann.

"I'm afraid I just lost it, I was completely ambushed by the giggles," said Green.

She admitted a similar giggling fit besieged her about 10 years ago, also on the Today programme.

"I did feel slightly embarrassed, knowing I have this reputation that I am prone to getting the giggles," she said.

"People have been very sweet and everyone has been coming up to me said how much it has cheered up their Friday morning."

Today's editor, Ceri Thomas, said most listeners who contacted the show had commented on "how much they had enjoyed the moment".

He added: "When Charlotte loses it, she really loses it."

Green's hysterical outburst started after a studio member remarked that the 1860 recording of a woman singing the French song Clair de Lune sounded like a "bee buzzing in a bottle".

Later on in the programme Green's fit of the giggles was repeated as presenter Ed Stourton remarked they had been besieged with calls begging them to play it again.

"Apparently the BBC press office is in meltdown with calls about it," he said.

"We hope that the family of Abby Mann will understand that it obviously wasn't intended as any slight towards him."

[Soul]

This is just lol .

Man warns City Council of possible zombie attack.

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It started as insightful and articulate, especially compared to most public-comment hokum.
Georgia transplant Wesley Wyndham-Price calmly stood before the City Council, cautioning members about downtown's derelict emergency-preparedness plan. City elders are "insouciantly" unaware of risks to City Creek Center, he warned.
Wyndham-Price even paused to joke that Georgia's saltwater taffy is better than Utah's. "I hope that is not an ad hominem," he shrugged.
Then he got specific and all reason helicoptered into the ether.
City Creek needs an emergency-preparedness plan, he demanded, against zombies.
"Zombies are fierce," he said as a crammed council chamber laughed nervously. "They are going to catch us in there."
Wyndham-Price admitted he never has seen a zombie attack but is sure one is coming. And shoppers could be sitting ducks in a sky bridge.
No word on whether monster man is related to campy horror-flick comedian Vincent Price. Actually, it appears the April 1 speech was a well-delivered April Fools' joke. After all, Wesley Wyndham-Price is a fictional character created for the TV series' "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel."
After the performance, the Avenues resident briefly plopped in the front row next to City Creek-LDS Church straight-man Dale Bills, then bolted.

Playing along, Councilman Luke Garrott declared that he would forward the zombie recommendation to the appropriate emergency committee posthaste.
But given the surge of Mormon minions anticipated at City Creek and the church's downtown BYU campus, Wyndham-Price clearly was off target.
He probably meant zoobies, not zombies.

Sandy elevated?

^^This ain't all of it mind you, click the link to read the rest of the story.

Edited by Soul, 11 April 2008 - 20:12.

[Dauth]

I love how every time, somehow something sensible coming out of the Church goes stupidly wrong.

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'Respect atheists', says Cardinal
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor urges deeper understanding between believers and non-believers

The Archbishop of Westminster has urged Christians to treat atheists and agnostics with "deep esteem".

Believers may be partly responsible for the decline in faith by losing sense of the mystery and treating God as a "fact in the world", he said in a lecture.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor called for more understanding and appreciation between believers and non-believers.

The leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales said that a "hidden God" was active in everyone's life.

The Cardinal's lecture at Westminster Cathedral comes after a spate of public clashes over issues such as stem-cell research, gay adoption and faith schools.

Mystery of God

He expressed concern about the increasing unpopularity of the Christian voice in public life, saying: "Our life together in Britain cannot be a God-free zone and we must not allow Britain to become a world devoid of religious faith and its powerful contribution to the common good."



Proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor Last year, he complained of a "new secularist intolerance of religion" and the state's "increasing acceptance" of anti-religious views.

To stem this tide, he said Christians must understand they have something in common with those who do not believe.

God is not a "fact in the world" as though God could be treated as "one thing among other things to be empirically investigated" and affirmed or denied on the "basis of observation", said Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor.

"If Christians really believed in the mystery of God, we would realise that proper talk about God is always difficult, always tentative.

"I want to encourage people of faith to regard those without faith with deep esteem because the hidden God is active in their lives as well as in the lives of those who believe."

There's absolutely no reason to take seriously someone who says, 'I believe it because I believe it'.
Richard Dawkins, scientist But Richard Dawkins, scientist, staunch atheist and author of books including The God Delusion, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the cardinal's comments carried no weight.

Referring to God as an "imaginary friend", Mr Dawkins said: "When talking to a politician you would demand proof for what they say, but suddenly when talking to a clergyman you don't have to provide evidence.

"There's absolutely no reason to take seriously someone who says, 'I believe it because I believe it.'

"God either exists or he doesn't. It's a matter of the truth."

How about treating everyone as humans? As opposed to treating them as members of a group? If the Church lead with a message like that I may not think of them as a bunch of *****************. Atheists are not a group, we have no reason to agree on anything other than we know there is no God.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/7390941.stm

[Strategia]

Normally, when a skull is dug up by some teenagers, you'd think they'd go and do something cool with it, like a satanic rite or a ritual sacrifice or something. But nooooo.....

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Men charged after skull dug up, used as bong

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Authorities in Texas have filed corpse-abuse charges against two men who allegedly removed a skull from a grave and used it as a bong.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed on Thursday that misdemeanor abuse of corpse charges have been filed in the case.

One of the men allegedly told police they dug up a grave in an abandoned cemetery in the woods, removed a head from a body and smoked marijuana using the skull as a bong.

Police found the cemetery and a grave that had been disturbed but are still investigating the rest of the story, officials said.

(Reporting by Bruce Nichols)

[Dauth]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughN...oddlyEnoughNews

Canadian pierces lover's heart in botched sex game

Quote

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian man who asked his lover to carve a heart-shaped symbol on his chest during a rough sex game almost died when she accidentally pressed too hard and punctured his heart, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The Winnipeg Free Press said the 25-year-old woman had been sentenced to three years' probation after she pleaded guilty to assaulting the man in February 2007.

The 24-year-old man was initially given little chance of survival but made a full recovery and is backing the woman. Both had been drinking heavily and engaging in rough sex when he asked the woman to carve the symbol, the paper said.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway)

[Stinger]

Dauth, on 29 Mar 2008, 0:44, said:

Radio 4 is the home of intelligent speech on the radio according to the BBC.

That is brilliant.

I love how her pitch alters as she tries to fight the laughter.

[Strategia]

Till death do us part..... or not.

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Heartbroken man climbs into morgue freezer

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan man grieving over the death of his girlfriend climbed inside a morgue freezer to be with her and was only pulled out alive half an hour later, media and an official said on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old man was discovered on Monday when workers detected an unusually high temperature in the freezer and realized the hatch was not securely fastened.

"A morgue manager opened the hatch, saw two people lying inside, felt scared enough to yell out and then even cried," the Liberty Times reported. "She didn't stabilize for a long time."

The man took a drug before entering the freezer to speed what appeared to be suicide attempt, local papers said. They said his girlfriend died on Friday from an overdose of sleeping pills.

The morgue would step up security to ensure that family and others who come by to identify bodies do not stay too long, morgue administrator Chang Lung-ching said.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

[Strategia]

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Boy, they REALLY make tourists feel welcome here!

TOKYO (Reuters) - One of the travelers who arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend may have picked up an unusual souvenir from customs -- a package of cannabis.

A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as a training exercise for sniffer dogs Sunday, but lost track of both drugs and suitcase during the practice session, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said.

Customs regulations specify that a training suitcase be used for such exercises, but the official said he had used passengers' suitcases for similar purposes in the past, domestic media reported.

"The dogs have always been able to find it before," NHK quoted him as saying. "I became overconfident that it would work."

Anyone who finds the package should contact Tokyo customs as soon as possible, the spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; editing by Sophie Hardach)

Quote

Vietnam reports "UFO" explosion

HANOI (Reuters) - An unidentified flying object exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, state media said Wednesday, a day after Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash.

The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long.

"The explosion happened at about 8 km (5 miles) above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft," VNA said in a report headlined "UFO explodes over Phu Quoc Island."

Soldiers were sent out to look for wreckage and survivors, and local authorities contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but received no reports of missing aircraft, the official state news agency added.

Villagers in Kampot said Tuesday that they had heard a loud explosion. Wednesday they told Reuters they had found small chunks of metal near the coastline.

Kung Mony, deputy commander of Cambodia's Air Force, said Tuesday he had been told of a foreign plane crashing in Kampot province, but later backed off his claims of an aircraft accident.

(Writing by Grant McCool and Ed Cropley in Bangkok; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Edited by Strategia™©, 30 May 2008 - 18:56.

[CodeCat]

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Japanese woman caught living in man's closet

TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_...an_closet_woman

[Kris]

CodeCat, on 2 Jun 2008, 22:45, said:

Quote

Japanese woman caught living in man's closet

TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_...an_closet_woman

Wahahaha, Thats EPIC and yet i fell sorry for her. Atleast she just ate and sleep for a year while not stealing anything except the man's food .

[E.V.E.]

That is kind of scary though in one way.

Imagine you get told that someone hid in your Closet for over a Year and moved through your House when you were away.
All the Stuff she might have heard you talking with somebody else, etc.



- E.V.E.

[G-sus]

^you dont have the slightest idea how big your house is...

[Strategia]

Quote

Curbing bike theft with thievery lessons?

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch cyclists lobby group plans to teach more people across the country how to steal bikes after lessons it conducted in the big cities showed that bike owners became more security-conscious after taking the lessons.

"Someone specialized in locks shows people how to unpick them. This teaches people how to better secure their bikes," a spokeswoman for Dutch bike group Fietsersbond said on Wednesday.

About 700,000 bikes were stolen in the Netherlands last year, home to 18 million bikes. Bikes are the most common form of transport in the Netherlands.

Fietserbond will tour the country, offering its bike theft lessons which has so far helped students moving to the cities like Amsterdam and who usually poorly secure their bikes, the group's spokeswoman said.

"If freshmen move to the city with their bikes, it is a party for bike thieves," she said.

The government launched a campaign on Wednesday, urging people to report bike theft to the police and make a note of their bike's identity number.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger)

Yay for the Netherlands, probably the only country in the world with more bicycles than inhabitants XD

[Overdose]

Quote

Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel

TOKYO (AFP) - Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a "tumour" had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer -- but the "growth" that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an eight-centimetre (3.2-inch) tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

"The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour," the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.

Edited by Overdose, 06 June 2008 - 23:25.

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

Quote

A drugs trial has been abandoned in Australia after several jurors admitted they had spent much of their time playing Sudoku in the courtroom.

Judge Peter Zahra aborted proceedings after the jury forewoman admitted she and four others had been playing the popular puzzles to fight off boredom.

The problem was discovered when some of the jurors were observed writing notes vertically rather than horizontally.

Sudoku involves completing a grid of numbers in the correct sequence.

The three-month trial had cost taxpayers more than A$1m (US$945,000) and the two accused men faced possible life sentences.

Copious 'note-taking'

One of the jurors explained that the puzzle had helped keep her "mind busy" as she listened to repeated testimonies from the witness box.

Send us your comments"Some of the evidence is rather drawn out, and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," the juror told the Australian Associated Press.

Lawyers had presumed the scribbling they could see jurors doing was note-taking.

"We actually all thought they were quite a diligent jury," lawyer Robyn Hakelis told ABC local radio.

"The judge had made many comments about what a good jury they were, how they were taking copious amounts of notes."

There is no legal action that can be taken against jurors for doing puzzles during a trial, so they will face no penalty for their behaviour.

A fresh trial is expected to begin in a few weeks, once a new jury has been called.

http://news.bbc.co.u...fic/7447627.stm

[Libains]

I saw that as well - a way to get out of Juror duty i suppose....

[Destiny]

Quote

There is no legal action that can be taken against jurors for doing puzzles during a trial, so they will face no penalty for their behaviour.

Doesn't this already make a trial redundant? Oh the irony.

[Dauth]

In Soviet Russia, Cement rains you!

Quote

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian air force planes dropped a 25-kg (55-lb) sack of cement on a suburban Moscow home last week while seeding clouds to prevent rain from spoiling a holiday, Russian media said on Tuesday.

"A pack of cement used in creating ... good weather in the capital region ... failed to pulverize completely at high altitude and fell on the roof of a house, making a hole about 80-100 cm (2.5-3 ft)," police in Naro-Fominsk told agency RIA-Novosti.

Ahead of major public holidays the Russian Air Force often dispatches up to 12 cargo planes carrying loads of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder to seed clouds above Moscow and empty the skies of moisture.

A spokesman for the Russian Air Force refused to comment.

June 12 was Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating the country's independence after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Weather specialists said the cement's failure to turn to powder was the first hiccup in 20 years.

The homeowner was not injured, but refused an offer of 50,000 roubles ($2,100) from the air force, saying she would sue for damages and compensation for moral suffering, Interfax said.

(Reporting by Chris Baldwin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Edited by Dauth, 17 June 2008 - 22:47.