Offbeat Boulevard

Texas man tries to cash cheque for $360,000,000,000

James — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:44:08 +0000

Texas man has been charged with forgery after attempting to cash in a personal cheque for $US360 billion.

Tellers at a bank in Fort Worth Texas became suspicious when Charles Ray Fuller, a 21-year-old North Texas man, handed over the whopper cheque, saying he wanted to start a record business.

Fuller said that his girlfriend’s mother was funding his new music venture, but when bank employees contacted the account owner, she denied giving him permission to take or cash the cheque.

In addition to the forgery count, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana. Officers reported finding less than 2 ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets.

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Vatican priest believes that God created aliens

Luke — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:40:12 +0000

The chief astronomer of the Roman Catholic Church says other forms of life may exist outside earth, and that intelligent beings could exist in outer space. Jesuit priests run the Pope’s astronomical observatory which was founded over a century ago.

The current director, Father Gabriel Funes from Argentina, is a much respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.

The search for forms of extra-terrestrial life, he says, does not contradict belief in God. “Just as there are a plethora of creatures on Earth, there could be others, equally intelligent, created by God,” he said. He also speculates some aliens may be free from original sin. “If other intelligent beings exist, it’s not certain that they need redemption.”

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Teenage girl walks to hospital after giving birth

Luke — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:38:03 +0000

A 17-year-old girl gave birth secretly at her Californian home, then walked four blocks to a hospital with the baby still attached by its umbilical cord. “I was just a little nervous” when the labour began, Xochitl Parra said yesterday from St Mary Medical Centre as she cradled her son, Alejandro.

The boy was normal and “eating like a champ”, said Dr Jose Perez, director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The teenager said she was alone and taking a shower early Wednesday morning to get ready for school. Then the contractions took over. “I felt his head coming, so I sit down and pushed so he could come out,” she said.

Parra did not call emergency services because the home phone was disconnected, and she did not want to wake the neighbours because it was so early. Instead, she wrapped the baby, got dressed and went to the hospital on foot. “I started walking and jogging to the hospital,” she said.

The teen came into the hospital lobby and asked for help, Perez said. “She still had the placenta and the baby was still attached, so of course everyone said, ‘Don’t move!”‘ he said. Perez praised the girl for taking quick action. “They could have bled to death. Thank God that didn’t happen,” the doctor said. “She was very clever. She knew what to do. She wrapped the baby up and walked over here.”

Parra, who’s in her second year of high school, said she kept her pregnancy a secret because she was afraid her mother would “kick me out of the house”. Her mother has now accepted the situation and is going to help the teen care for the baby so she can continue attending school, Parra said.

Perez called the outcome “heartwarming”. “We hear so much negative with teenagers throwing their babies in the dumpsters (garbage bins),” he said. “This baby is fine, and hopefully there will be a happy ending with the extended family.”

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British soldier sues army over Paris Hilton comparison

Luke — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:35:00 +0000

A British soldier is suing the army because of the embarrassing nickname given to him by fellow troops. Kerry Hylton claims he has been demeaned by the nickname “Paris” after the notorious blonde American socialite.

He is suing for race discrimination alleging his fellow soldiers ignored orders to stop calling him Paris. Jamaican born Hylton a chef with the Welsh Guard finds the nickname offensive because he considers Paris Hilton a white woman with a low reputation.

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Cancer patient performs surgery on hiw own throat

James — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:32:46 +0000

A man who has previously suffered throat cancer has taken matters into his own hands and performed a do-it-yourself tracheotomy after he had difficulties breathing.

Steve Wilder of Omaha, Nebraska, woke in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe. In a panic he ran to the kitchen, fearing an ambulance would not reach him in time, to pick up a steak knife. Using the knife, he cut a hole into his throat, which allowed air to pass into his lungs.

Doctors expected Wilder to make a full recovery from his emergency surgery, and said that once the wounds had healed, he shouldn’t suffer from after effects.

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Pregnant woman kept in storeroom at Gold Coadt hospital

James — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:30:48 +0000

A woman in labour was allegedly forced to lie on the floor of the Gold Coast hospital storeroom for three hours, because there were no beds. Her family says she waited in the foyer for an hour before hospital staff took her to a linen storeroom, where a mattress had been laid out.

Her sister says the woman, only identified as Erica was unable to be examined properly because of the confined space, and was given no pain relief. The hospital has apologised to the family, saying it was confronted last Friday with double the average number of births.

Erica’s partner Mitch says he’s disgusted with the health system

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Young couple identity theft to live luxurious lives

Luke — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:25:05 +0000

A couple of young American jet-setters plan to admit in court that they financed their luxury lifestyle through identity theft. A lawyer for Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, said Monday that she and her now-ex-boyfriend have signed federal plea agreements that likely will send them to prison for several years for identity theft and other crimes.

Since her arrest, Kirsch’s friends and classmates at Drexel University have portrayed her as a serial liar who even masked her identity when she met Britain’s Prince Charles at a student forum in Philadelphia last year; in a favourite myth, she told him she was Lithuanian.

When Kirsch and Edward K Anderton, 25, were arrested in December, photos found on a laptop in their $US3,000 ($A3.173)-a-month apartment showed the couple smooching under the Eiffel Tower, riding horseback on a beach and flaunting skimpy red swimsuits by a swanky hotel pool.

They stole credit-card and bank-account information from friends, co-workers and neighbours to finance lavish purchases and travel, prosecutors said.

They were arrested when they claimed a package at a local UPS store under a neighbour’s ID. The package contained lingerie from a British retailer.

“They were just so arrogant,” Philadelphia Detective Terry Sweeney, the lead investigator, said Monday.”When you start committing ID theft around the corner from where you live, it’s going to come back to haunt you.”

Anderton, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with an economics degree, also set up eBay accounts with various stolen identities to buy and sell nonexistent goods, authorities said. That scheme alone netted $US33,000, US Attorney Patrick Meehan said. State charges against the pair were dismissed as federal charges were filed Monday by way of an information, which often indicates a defendant’s cooperation.

Kirsch’s lawyer, Ronald Greenblatt, said his client signed an agreement to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering, bank fraud and other charges. The sentencing guideline range is about five years.

Anderton also signed a plea deal, Greenblatt said. Anderton’s lawyer, Larry Krasner, did not return messages left with The Associated Press on Monday.

Kirsch is living with her mother in Novato, California, while Anderton, who had a $US60,000-a-year starter job in real-estate finance, is back home with his family in Everett, Washington state. She’s supposed to be graduating college now, and instead she’s going to be going down to federal court in a few weeks and entering a plea,” Greenblatt said.

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Austrian “snake man” slithers out of jail

Luke — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:19:51 +0000

A man has escaped from his Austrian jail cell by squeezing through a food hatch in the door, police said on Wednesday.

The 19-year old Kosovan, who weighed less than 121 pounds, was being held at the prison in Linz for entering the country illegally, police spokesman Alexander Niederwimmer told APA news agency.

How he got through two further doors or possibly over the prison wall is being investigated, said Niederwimmer, calling the escapee “a snake man.”

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New solar bra to power your Ipod

Luke — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:38:03 +0000

Ladies, take your battle for the environment a little closer to your heart with a solar-powered bra that can generate enough electric energy to charge a mobile phone or an iPod.

Lingerie maker Triumph International Japan unveiled its environmentally friendly, and green coloured, Solar Power Bra in Tokyo. The bra features a solar panel worn around the stomach which requires light to generate electricity.

The concept bra will not be in stores anytime soon, said Triumph spokeswoman Yoshiko Masuda, as “people usually can not go outside without wearing clothes over it.”

But it does send the message of how lingerie could possibly save the planet, Masuda said.

The Solar Energy Bra follows the company’s other green-themed undergarments that include a bra that turns into a reusable shopping bag and one made of metal chopsticks to promote the use of reusable chopsticks.

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Ronal McDonald’s daughter (Japan)

Tyler — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:30:21 +0000