Thursday, September 30, 2010

Pennsylvania woman zaps self, brother with stun gun

NORTH EAST, Pa. – Police said an Erie-area woman somehow managed to zap both herself and her brother with a stun gun during a drunken dispute. Darlene Newara, 45, will have a hearing Oct. 18 on charges including driving under the influence, disorderly conduct for fighting, and public drunkenness in the Aug. 8 incident.
State police said they responded to a disturbance outside an Erie-area store about 6 p.m. to find that Newara had been arguing with her brother and stunned him with the device, then accidentally shocked herself with it.
Police said she was intoxicated and had several unopened bottles of liquor in the vehicle with her three sons, who were not hurt.
The Associated Press could not immediately locate a listed phone for Newara.
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Information from: Erie Times-News, http://www.goerie.com


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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Montana teen accidentally texts sheriff to buy pot

HELENA, Mont. – General rule of thumb: when looking to buy marijuana, don't text the sheriff. Authorities said a Helena teen hit a wrong number and inadvertently sent a message to Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton, saying "Hey Dawg, do you have a $20 I can buy right now?"
A detective pretending to be the dealer organized a meeting at a time when the boy knew he and another teen would be at a particular store.
The detective spotted two teenage boys and one of the boy's fathers — who was unaware of what was going on — at the store. He called the phone number three times to make sure he had the right person. Dutton said when the detective showed the teens his badge, one of the boys fainted.
No citations were issued after the parents of the boys, who were 15 and 16, got involved.


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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Malaysia uncovers nearly 100 live reptiles in bag

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian airport security arrested a convicted wildlife smuggler after finding almost 100 live reptiles in his luggage, the country's Wildlife and National Parks Department said.
Anson Wong, already convicted of trafficking in wildlife in the United States, was in transit from the Malaysian island state of Penang to the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday when Malaysia Airlines staff at Kuala Lumpur airport were alerted to a bag that had broken while on a conveyor belt.
The department, in a statement issued late on Saturday, said itsenforcement officers found 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle inside the luggage.
Boa constrictors are subject to regulations or a complete ban in international commercial trade as they are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The statement said Wong would remain in detention for two days. Under Malaysian law, if found guilty, he could face seven years in jail and fines of up to 100,000 ringgit ($32,000) for each animal or both.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Wong had previously pleaded guilty to a trafficking in the United States in 2001 and was sentenced to 71 months in jail.
TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organization, said Malaysia must "rise to the challenge" of confronting new evidence of its role as an hub for those engaged in wildlife smuggling.
"Their attempt at mocking Malaysia's legal system must be dealt with head-on," said Kanitha Krishnasamy, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Senior Programme Officer.
On Friday, Thai customs officials found a two-month-old tiger stashed in a bag filled with tiger toys which had been checked in for an international passenger flight.
(Reporting by Royce Cheah; Editing by Ron Popeski)


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Monday, September 27, 2010

Older people enjoy reading negative stories about young

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Older people like reading negative news stories about their younger counterparts because it boosts their own self-esteem, according to a new study.
German researchers said older people tend to be portrayed negatively in society. Although they are often described as wise, they are also be shown as being slow and forgetful.
"Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That's why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society," said Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, of Ohio State University.
Knoblock-Westerwick and her co-author Matthias Hastall, of Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, studied 276 German adults, including 178 aged 18 to 30 and 98 between 55 and 60. Their findings are published in the Journal of Communication.
All the adults in the study were shown what they were led to believe was a test version of a new online news magazine. They were also given a limited time to look over either a negative and positive version of 10 pre-selected articles.
Each story was also paired with a photograph depicting someone of either the younger or the older age group.
The researchers found that older people were more likely to choose to read negative articles about those younger than themselves. They also tended to show less interest in articles about older people, whether negative or positive.
But younger people preferred to read positive articles about other young people.
According to Knobloch-Westerwick, older people's preference for negative news about their younger counterparts can be explained by their place in society.
"Everybody likes a self-esteem boost. For young people though, it's almost automatic. Youth is considered important in society," she said.
After perusing the articles, the participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure levels of self-esteem. Unlike their younger counterparts, the self-esteem of older people rose after they read a negative article about younger people.
Although the study was done in Germany, Knobloch-Westerwick believe nationality and the national characteristics are not important.
"I believe that much the same would hold true for Americans" if a similar study were undertaken in the US," she said in an interview.

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Man arrested for trying to dazzle pilots with laser

PARIS (Reuters) – A man appeared in court on Tuesday accused of trying to dazzle pilots with a laser beam as they were landing at France's second-busiest airport Paris Orly, aviation authorities said.
"Several pilots complained and the man was arrested near the runway," a spokesman for the civil aviation authority said.
Airport security officials said three pilots, including crew of Air France and EasyJet flights, warned the control tower on Sunday, which alerted the police and the man was caught in the act.
A spokeswoman for Air France said its pilot was never in any difficulty but there had been a growing number of such incidents.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Andrew Roche)


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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Cup of tea forces jet to make emergency landing

BERLIN (Reuters) – A British airplane en route to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Germany after a 56-year-old woman spilled a hot cup of tea on herself, German police said on Wednesday.
The Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Poznan made the unscheduled landing in the northwestern city of Bremen on Tuesday, local police said.
The British woman was treated for scalding at the airport and released -- but not before the plane resumed its journey without her. She later took a train to Poland, police said.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by Paul Casciato)


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Friday, September 24, 2010

Canadian parents more lenient than Italians and French

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Canadian parents are more lenient with their children than mothers and fathers in France and Italy, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Montreal, the University of Rennes in France and the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy discovered that Canadians are tolerant, Italians are demanding and the French are somewhere between the two.
"Our most important finding was the difference between Canadians and the others." said Professor Michel Claes, of the University of Montreal.
"Canadians focus on independence and negotiation. On the other hand, Italians, for example, have more constraining practices and exercise more control. We found Canadians seem to focus on negotiation in the case of conflict," he added.
Claes said Canada, France and Italy were selected for the study because they share important cultural and social factors.
"We chose French-Canadians because they share the same language as France, and originally came from France and share certain values. Italy was included because it was considered to have similar, strong, important family values," he explained.
The researchers, who published the findings in the Journal of Adolescence, examined the emotional bond between parents and their children by questioning 1,256 students aged 11 to 19 years old.
Canadian students reported less control and more permissive disciplinary actions, according to the study. Italian parents were constraining, stricter and more demanding and French parents were somewhere in the middle.
Claes attributes Canadian parents' perceived leniency to differences in education in France and Italy.
"North America has its own democratic and educational values, which promote individualization. Tolerance and comprehension are encouraged, and we exclude systems of coercive control. Italy, on the other hand, promotes respect of authority, control, and the need for permission," he said.
Children from all three countries described their mothers as warm and communicative. Italian and Canadian children had similar feelings about their fathers and reported high levels of emotional bonding. But French fathers were generally perceived by their children as being more distant and confrontational.
"We were surprised by this," Claes admitted. "It seems as though the relationships of French mothers with their children were becoming closer over time, while fathers maintain a form of distance and coldness that is more of a source of conflict in France than in the other countries."
The study also found that boys faced considerably more discipline from parents, who were also less tolerant of their sons' friend-related activities.
Claes suggests that male children were perceived by their parents as being more likely to engage in bad behavior.
"It's a universal observation that boys are often hyperactive, especially at a young age and have more troubles in adolescence. Girls are more internalized, and have more problems such as depression and anxiety. Boys are externalized. You would find this holds true even in Japan and China. It's universal," he added.
(Editing by Patricia Reaney)


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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Man bites police over a pet peeve

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Police arrested an 82-year-old man after he bit and kicked officers who had arrived to mediate in a dispute with a neighbor over a domestic pet.
The officers arrived at his house in the central Dutch village of Nijkerk to talk to the neighbor when the man was leaving on his bicycle, police said.
Asked to identify himself, the man got off his bike and started to kick and bite the officers, police said Thursday. The man was taken to thepolice station and was released after questioning.
(Reporting by Marcel Michelson, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Chinese pilots who faked resumes back in the air

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese pilots who had lied about their flying experience have been allowed to return to work after they took remedial action to make up their hours, according to the country's aviation watchdog.
Chinese media reported this month that a probe in 2008 had found about 200 pilots had falsified elements of their resumes.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said they had found 192 pilots whose "flying experience to different degrees did not accord with reality."
Some had their licenses revoked, but others were given the chance to retrain and had been allowed to fly once more, the regulator said in a statement on its website (www.caac.gov.cn) late Wednesday.
"Those pilots given compulsory retraining were, after a thorough inspection of their qualifications, allowed to resume their posts," it said, without naming the airlines involved or how many pilots had been allowed back to work.
Following the incident, the regulator said it had tightened procedures to ensure the problem would not happen again, and that it would not tolerate such falsification.
The official Xinhua news agency said that with the rapid expansion of the aviation sector in China, "airlines turn a blind eye to fake records since they are happy to see more pilots certified by the administrative agency."
China's aviation industry was jolted by an accident in the northeast of the country last month in which 42 people died when a Henan Airlines jet crashed short of the runway.
Until that crash, there had been no other major accident as a result of stricter safety rules and relatively young fleets of mainly Western-made aircraft.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Chris Lewis and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Fines of $7 in "tough" new China anti-smoking rules

BEIJING (Reuters) – China's "toughest" ever smoking ban which aims to stop people lighting up during November's Asian Games will carry fines of $7 (£4.5), state media said on Wednesday, a limited deterrent to smokers in one of China's richest cities.
People found smoking in offices, conference halls, elevators and certain other public spaces will be fined 50 yuan ($7.36), though "businesses not meeting their obligations" will be fined up to 30,000 yuan, the official Xinhua news agency said, calling it "the nation's toughest smoking ban."
Guangzhou is one of China's wealthiest cities, with a per capita GDP of more than $10,000, so individual 50 yuan fines are unlikely to have much impact on most residents unless there are armies of enforcers combing the city.
The fines may be raised in the future though, Xinhua added.
Smoking is a national pastime in China, with more than half of men indulging in the habit.
A million people die each year from smoking-related illnesses, yet China's Ministry of Health only banned smoking in hospitals this May. No-smoking signs are routinely ignored throughout the country.
Less smoking could reduce smoking-related health costs, but would also hurt government revenues, as thetobacco industry still provides nearly one-tenth of China's tax revenues.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sugita Katyal)


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Monday, September 20, 2010

Florida race drops Che Guevara image after outcry

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Organizers of an irreverent Florida auto race that used Che Guevara's image in its logo have dropped the Cuban revolutionary from promotional materials after public outcry.
They're also changing the title from the previous "24 Hours of Cuba of the North."
The December event at Palm Beach International Raceway is part of a national, tongue-in-cheek racing circuit whose entries cost less than $500. Most have zany names and emblems — like the "Southern Discomfort 2010" in South Carolina, whose logo features a cartoon hillbilly.
For many in Florida's native Cuban community, the image of Guevara with racing goggles around his neck crossed the boundary of good taste.
Officials tell The Palm Beach Post they're working on a new name and emblem.
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Information from: The Palm Beach Post, http://www.pbpost.com


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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Mystery eye problem at dairy show caused by cow urine

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The cause of a mystery eye ailment that struck about 50 visitors to a dairy pavilion at an agricultural show in Australia has been traced -- to cow urine.
The Royal Adelaide Show had to close its dairy cattle pavilion after an rising number of people reported sore eyes when visiting the judging marquee.
Officials from the South Australia (SA) Health Department were called in to investigate and found the cause of the outbreak was stagnant cow urine.
Show spokeswoman Michelle Hocking told local reporters that a recent spell of wet weather may have created conditions within the pavilion where ammonia from cow urine was released.
About 30 people were treated on site by volunteers from the first aid group St. John Ambulance but about 20 went to the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"From our institutional memory we can't recall an incident of this nature before," Peter Jackson from the St. John Ambulance told Reuters.
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)


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