An Indonesian maid has been jailed for six days in Hong Kong for serving her boss a cup of water containing urine, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to a charge of "administering poison or other destructive or noxious substance with intent to injure," but insisted she had used the urine to treat a skin condition and its appearance in her employer's cup was a mistake.

Her boss, Szeto Ching-han, smelled the urine after asking for a cup of water, and then asked the maid to drink it -- which she did. Szeto, however, kept the liquid to have it tested in a lab, the South China Morning Post said.

The defense argued that the maid's employer had not drunk the urine and the substance was not poisonous.

"The only contact the former employer had with the so-called poisonous mixture was the smell," her lawyer was quoted as telling the court.

The magistrate who heard the case said there was no evidence that the maid had suffered any harm after drinking from the cup, but still gave the maid a six-day jail sentence, saying the court "must send a message to the public."

Maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are often the subject of court cases in richer neighbors such as Hong Kong and Singapore, but usually as the victims of rape or other abuse by their employers.
(Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. )

U.S. fundraiser to feature machine guns

A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons -- from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.

The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a "Machine Gun Shoot" where, for $25 (12.12 pounds), supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons, said organizer Jerry Thibodeau.

"It's a fun day. It's a family day," said Thibodeau of the August 5 event. "It's quite exciting."

Local Democrats say the event is in poor taste amid a spike in violent crime in Manchester and seeks to glorify the use of machine guns for political gain. The right to own guns has come under heightened scrutiny since the April shooting at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people.

"It is downright offensive," Chris Pappas, the Manchester Democratic party chairman, told the Union Leader newspaper.

Thibodeau said he invited all the Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race to the event at Pelham Fish and Game Club outside of Manchester, the state's largest city, but he said they declined. He said all shooters would undergo training.

Buying a gun in New Hampshire, whose official motto is "Live Free or Die," is relatively easy.

The state does not require buyers to obtain a handgun license or undergo safety training before buying a handgun, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control lobby group.
(Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. )

Citizens told to quit bad habits before Beijing Olympics By Nick Mulvenney

The people of Beijing have been asked to rid themselves of bad habits and clean up their language as part of improving the city's environment ahead of next year's Olympic Games.

Addressing the "ceremony of mobilisation and pledging of the people from all circles for Olympic one-year countdown", Beijing Olympic chief Liu Qi stressed it was up to individuals to ensure the city was ready to host the Games in a year and two weeks' time.

"Every citizen should behave in a civilised manner, cast away ugly habits, clean up their language, clean the environment and clean the air," Liu, president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), said on Wednesday.

"We should push the environmental campaign and effectively solve the problem of spitting and littering. Every citizen should voluntarily keep the city clean, acting by themselves from now on to clean and beautify our home."

POTENTIAL BLIGHTS

Spitting, littering and the unwillingness of many Chinese to stand in line have been identified as potential blights on the city's image as it prepares to welcome the world next year.

Liu said security was vital to hosting a good Games and measures should be taken to avoid protests or confrontations with the city authorities.

"We must guarantee a safe and stable Beijing society ... and construct an impregnable fortress to ensure safety and stability," he said.

"We must solve the internal conflicts of people well, take various solutions, try to solve them at the grass roots."

Liu, who is also head of the Beijing Communist Party, was the key speaker at the ceremony in the north of the city held at an exhibition hall hung with red banners with Olympic slogans daubed on them.

An official led a sing-along of patriotic songs before Liu stood to issue his rallying call to the assembled soldiers, nurses, policemen and women, workers, volunteers, representatives of ethnic minorities and party cadres.

"At the one year countdown I, representing BOCOG and the city government and Municipal Party, am calling on all Beijing citizens, young and old, city or village dwellers, no matter what their job or where they come from, to take action at once."
(Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.)


hA HA HA YEah Do not eat cats or dogs either .

Indian state mulls a dose of culture to reform prisoners

Prison authorities in southern India are planning to introduce inmates to poetry, literature and music as part of a novel reform plan, a minister said Tuesday.

Poets, playwrights, authors and musicians will participate in readings and live performances, as well as share their experiences with inmates, said Kerala state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

"Jails should not be used as torture grounds. They might have committed crimes but we should help them to reform themselves," Balakrishnan told AFP.

"We want to reform the prisoners and shine some light into their lives."

Kerala has 39 prisons housing thousands of inmates.

Though Balakrishnan did not say how soon the "cultural interventions" would start, prison authorities said they were aiming to organise the first series of interactions in the next few months.

The proposal was first mooted earlier this year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, the body representing artists and writers.

"I love to go and perform before the prisoners if I get an opportunity. Nobody is born a criminal," said poet Vinayachandran, a member of the Akademi who uses only one name.

Senior prison official M.G.A. Raman said he hoped the proposed meetings would "contribute to positive changes in behaviour and attitudes of the prisoners.

"Poetry and music help them to relax. We encourage prisoners to study more and take degrees and conduct classes for them. So when they come out of prisons, they can begin a new life," he said.

The move is reminiscent of measures introduced in Tihar Jail, India's largest prison in New Delhi.

Tihar Jail authorities have introduced yoga and meditation sessions for inmates along with pottery, candle-making and computer programmes as part of its reform plan.
(Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. )

Frenchwoman 'raped' artwork with forbidden kiss: curator

A French museum curator on Tuesday accused a Frenchwoman of "raping" a two-million-euro artwork by US artist Cy Twombly, by planting a lipstick-red kiss on its pristine white canvas.

Cambodian-born Sam Rindy, 30, was arrested and faces prosecution for criminal damage after allegedly kissing the painting last week, leaving a lip-shaped stain on its otherwise immaculate surface.

The young woman, herself an artist, says she was overcome by the work's power. "I found the painting even more beautiful afterwards," she said.

But Eric Mezil, who curated the exhibition of the US painter's works in the southern French city of Avignon, told AFP: "This is vandalism, a rape, she has no idea what she has done."

"She talks about love, but this is rape. She needs to understand what an artist's intellectual property means," added Mezil, who said Twombly was "devastated" by the incident.

"This woman vandalised the work in a kind of performance... There is very little chance we will be able to restore it."

"Lipstick contains fat and chemicals and red is the most violent colour: this red is indelible," he said.

The untitled work three metres by two (roughly nine feet by six), is valued at two million euros (2.8 million dollars). It has been removed from the exhibition, "Blooming", which runs until September 30, and taken to an expert for assessment.

Mezil said he has received messages of support from several US museums and the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam which has had to deal with similar incidents.
(Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. )

Hey big spender, $210,000 drinks bill

A Middle Eastern businessman spent over $210,000 in a five-hour, champagne- and vodka-fuelled spending spree in a London nightclub at the weekend.

Fraser Donaldson, a representative of Crystal, a club favored by Prince Harry, said in 20 years working in the industry it was the biggest bill he'd seen from one customer.

The unnamed big spender entered Crystal at midnight on Saturday with friends -- nine women and eight men -- and ordered a $50 bottle of white wine, a spokesman for the club said.

But before long he was ordering magnums of Dom Perignon at $1,400 each and then called for a Methuselah -- eight bottles in one -- of Cristal Champagne at $60,000 and the party spread.

The festivities ended with a "night cap" consisting of a Methuselah of Belvedere vodka, which cost $2,800. "He basically just said, 'keep the drinks flowing,'" the club spokesman said.

When the party left at 5 a.m., the bill was 81,471.50 pounds, which with tax and service added amounted to 105,805.28 pounds -- $218,000. It included the cost of six Coca-Colas.
(Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.)

Rats and cats work to sniff out mines

Who says Tom and Jerry can't be friends? For the past year, a special Colombian police unit has been locking rats in cages with cats as part of a project to train the rodents to sniff out the more than 100,000 landmines planted mostly by leftist rebels across this conflict-wracked Andean country.

Bringing the rats face to face with an enemy allows them to stay more focused once they are released, veterinarian Luisa Mendez, who's been working with the animals for two years, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"Here the cats play with the rats instead of attacking them," Mendez said. "The cats wear shields on their nails so they can't cause any injuries and as a result the rats feel comfortable playing around them."

The rodents are taught to freeze in front of mines, but had difficulty staying put for fear of being attacked by predators.

Col. Javier Cifuentes, who oversees the project, said the rats' success rate in mine detection is 96 percent. Unlike dogs, the rats weigh a lot less and therefore don't trigger explosions.

Colombia is home to the world's largest number of land mine victims. Last year, there were 1,108 victims, or about one every eight hours, the government says. Nearly a quarter of the victims die from their injuries.

The nation's rat project was recognized last month as one of the five most innovative projects at a conference of behavior psychologists in Mexico, and its initial findings will soon be presented at a similar conference in Argentina.
(Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

Pit Bull Rapes 2-Year-Old

Buffalo, NY -- A disturbing and violent attack leaves a toddler in serious condition at Women and Children's Hospital. Neighbors heard a mother screaming that her child was being raped.

Lockport Police received a 911 call from a frantic City of Lockport mother Sunday afternoon.

The mother told Lockport Police that she left her two-year-old unattended for a short time and after hearing the baby scream, she ran to see what was wrong.

When she got in the room, she told Lockport Police the dog had sodomized the toddler. The mother screamed, scaring the dog and it ran out of the house.

One neighbor told 2 On Your Side, she heard the mother screaming "the dog is raping my baby." Neighbors ran to help, but only one man was able to get the dog and child apart.

Anastacio Castillo says "I tried to get the dog away from the baby, the dog was already inside the baby." When the baby was finally free, he was visibly sick.

The baby was rushed to Women and Children's Hospital where the toddler underwent reconstructive surgery.

The dog is being held at the Niagara County SPCA for evaluation. An animal behavior specialist is scheduled to evaluate the Pit Bull.

The Niagara County District Attorney's office is assisting Lockport Police with the investigation.

Miranda Workman, behavior specialist at Purrfect Paws in Amherst says, "Most likely this is not a learned behavior. Dogs intact, not spayed or neutered have a higher hormonal drive."

She urges parents to never, ever leave their children alone with a dog.

hahahahahahaha bcccccccccc, where do u get all these bizarre news from huh? Hahahaha
pit bull raped a baby re? hahahahaha...what a desperate dog...beats me by miles :P :D

how u doing dawg? rocking as ever ho? nice nice...keep it up boy :D

What up LOOTS !!!
Thats nothing, I was flipping through the channels in the shitbox las week and happen to fall upon ANNA NICOLE SMITH's lil poodle humping a stuff toy teddy bear. At first I though it was just a coincidence but she threw the toy to a another room and the pup ran after it like a maniac and continued humpin' it. Gues sum pups have mo testosterone than others I guess. he he
Hope yer doin' well like LL.....
Hard as hell
Doin' it doin' it doin' it well. he he

haha..yah seen those stuffs in america's funniest home videos. it's pretty obvious that these pets are deprived from their natural habitat...so they are likely to go thru such adrenaline rushes at times ni hoina? :D..
what amazes me is how can a mother be so stupid to leave her toddler, that too naked, with the unsupervised pit bull?....this news and many others akin to this is a wake up call for them mothers and house maids i believe...yah don't leave your toddlers with pets (animals are animals after all)...

btw, the first news is also pretty hilarious..man that maid haha...there are maniacs everywhere hahaha

Yeah Urine is goin' a bit too far. I eman I have frens who are waiter who often spit on unruly customers food. I mean they have gone as far as buggers from yo nostrils, I would have to say Unrine is a bit too far. he he

Yeah to leave that toddler that too with a BITBULL ? C'mon now. They were trying to ban pitbulls aas pets in CA(berkley area). Man that dog must have been a gay dude in the past life. ha ha

hahahahaha baulais ki ke ho halfwitted Bathroome? Toilet ma basera Coffee sip gardai yestai yestai news khojera basdo raicha haha.

ewwwwwwww those r the most disgusting stories i have ever heard