Australian Sniffs Chair

I really must move to Australia - it seems the politicians are always fun to watch there!

clipped from news.yahoo.com SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian political leader broke down at a news conference Tuesday as he admitted that he had sniffed the chair of a female colleague, local media reported. The confession came from the leader of the conservative Liberal Party in Western Australia, Troy Buswell, who has previously owned up to snapping the bra strap of an opposition party staffer. The woman involved in the incident, a Liberal Party staffer who does not want to be named, said Buswell sniffed the chair she had been sitting on at his Parliament House office in December 2005. Buswell has previously admitted to snapping the bra of a staffer for the Labor Party, which governs the state, and has been accused by a retiring lawmaker of making sexist remarks to her.

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The British Are Getting Ruder

3000 people were interviewed for this survey on manners, but what you don't know is that 6,000 told the interviewer to *^?% off!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are ruder than they were a decade ago, according to a survey on Monday that showed almost three-quarters of people think manners should be taught at school. More than 90 percent of respondents believe parents are failing to ensure their children learn proper manners and that bad behaviour of celebrities and footballers are setting a poor example for impressionable youngsters. Spitting and swearing were the most offensive behaviours, it found, while queue-jumping and not saying "please" or "thank you" were other main gripes.

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Never Late for a Date!

When I was young, doing something like that would have been so cool!

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Prince William landed a Royal Air Force helicopter in the garden of the parents of his girlfriend Kate Middleton but the Ministry of Defence defended his actions, saying he achieved essential training objectives. The News of the World newspaper reported on Sunday the 25-year-old William, who is second in line to the throne, asked permission from his girlfriend's parents to land at their Berkshire home due to a shortage of landing slots in Hampshire. While aviation analyst and RAF-trained pilot Jon Lake told the News of the World the April 3 flight was "ridiculous and inappropriate", the MOD said the two-hour training mission was fully authorised as part of William's four-month RAF attachment. "Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations," it said in a statement.

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Psychics Face Persecution

Yes, they should have seen it coming, but maybe they know the petition will work? Or perhaps they could go on strike? No fortunes being told would certainly bring the country to a halt.

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Fortune-tellers, mediums and spiritual healers marched on the home of the British prime minister at Downing Street on Friday to protest against new laws they fear will lead to them being "persecuted and prosecuted." Organizers say that replacing the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 with new consumer protection rules will remove key legal protection for "genuine" mediums. They think skeptics might bring malicious prosecutions to force spiritualists to prove in court that they can heal people, see into the future or talk to the dead. With the changes expected to come into force next month, spiritualists have faced a barrage of headlines gleefully suggesting that they should have seen it coming.

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Hedgehogs Replace Dogs

It's like replacing a dog with a hamster. I can't see them replacing dogs, but they are cute.

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Can man's best friend be replaced by a prickly pal the size of your palm? Busy pet lovers have been buying hedgehogs, whose nocturnal habits make them appealing to the modern worker because they wake in the evening when their owners arrive home after a day in the office. "They are unbelievably pretty little creatures&, the way they bumble along, the way they poke their noses into everything," hedgehog breeder Bonnie Martin told Reuters. Initial costs for the animal and accompanying equipment can run to 300 pounds. But hedgehogs, who can survive on cat food, are cheaper to feed because they eat a third of the household cat's daily diet, Martin said.

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Deadly Rhino Horns

Well, if they are used as an aphrodisiac, at least they will die happy!

clipped from news.yahoo.com CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Two 19th century rhino horns stolen from a South African museum could be deadly if sold as a popular aphrodisiac because they are drenched in poison, a museum official said on Monday. The "priceless" horns were snatched from a display at the historic mammal gallery in Cape Town on Saturday evening, said Jatti Bredekamp, chief executive of Iziko Museums. "Unknowingly, the thieves have exposed themselves to more than the danger of arrest and prosecution," Bredekamp said in a statement. "Before the mid-twentieth century, taxidermy mounts were prepared by being soaked in arsenic and preserved from insect infestation through regular applications of DDT, both highly toxic poisons that retain their toxicity over time," he said. Bredekamp said the horns were deliberately targeted in a carefully planned robbery, and might be destined for Asia, where ground rhino horns are a prized aphrodisiac.

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Biggest Barbecue

I hope they had lots of coleslaw too!

clipped from news.yahoo.com MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - More than a thousand barbecue fanatics in Uruguay grilled up 12 metric tonnes (26,400 lbs) of beef on Sunday, setting a new Guinness world record while promoting the country's succulent top export. Army personnel set up a grill nearly 1 mile long and firefighters lit six tonnes of charcoal to kick off the gargantuan cookout. "I'm very proud to be Uruguayan. We have the best beef and now we have the world's biggest barbecue," said one of the volunteer cooks, sporting an apron and chef's hat. The barbecue was organized by the National Meats Institute, or INAC in Spanish, which tracks beef sales abroad. "Uruguay is very small, it's not known for other events so we have to use these kinds of gimmicks so people find out where Uruguay is and what it has to offer," said INAC's vice president, Fernando Perez Abella.

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A Jewel Amongst Camels

In a follow up to the camel beauty contest story, one of the contestants has been bought for almost $3M.

clipped from news.yahoo.com ABU DHABI (AFP) - The crown prince of the United Arab Emirates of Dubai has bought a female camel for a record 2.72 million dollars, an organiser at a camel beauty pageant said on Monday. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum "bought camels... worth 16.5 million dirhams (4.49 million dollars), including a female camel... for 10 million dirhams (2.72 million dollars)," Hamad bin Kardoum al-Amiri said. More than 10,000 camels -- including females which are the fasting racing camels -- from across the Gulf are competing for prize money totalling around 9.5 million dollars. One hundred cars are also up for grabs. The contest is part of a camel festival in Abu Dhabi that aims to celebrate and preserve the region's cultural heritage.

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Singing Astronaut

Wait - do the rest of the crew get a vote on whether she should sing? Is she any good? What does Simon Cowell say?

clipped from news.yahoo.com BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) - South Korea's first astronaut said Monday on the eve of her launch to the International Space Station (ISS) that she will celebrate arrival in space by singing for her fellow crew. "We will have food on April 12 on the Day of Cosmonauts and I will sing but it's a secret what is the song," Yi So-Yeon, 29, said at a press conference at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where she is set to blast off on Tuesday. A South Korean space official said that Yi's 12-day mission would cost South Korea around 20 million dollars (12.8 million euros) and that he hoped the flight would help further his country's manned space flight ambitions.

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Valuable Underwear

Diamonds? Come on - that must be really uncomfortable!

clipped from news.yahoo.com SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A diamond thong worth S$168,000 ($122,000) was the highlight of a lingerie fashion show in Singapore on Thursday. The Triumph Luxurious Diamond Thong had 518 brilliant-cut diamonds, totaling 30 carats, studded into the front of a black lace thong in a floral pattern. The skimpy underwear that left little to the imagination also had 27 white gold tassels hanging off it. Danielle Luminita, a brunette model from Romania, was carried down the runway on the shoulders of two male models wearing only the diamond thong. A spokeswoman for Triumph International, the lingerie company that commissioned the thong, said that the thong would be dry cleaned before going on display.

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Five Legged Dog

Maybe they need more fire hydrants round there!

clipped from news.yahoo.com AVON LAKE, Ohio - A developmental problem split Angel the dog's leg, making her look like a five-legged pet. Veterinarian Frank Krupka, with the Avon Lake Animal Clinic in suburban Cleveland, said he's never seen anything like it. After examining X-rays, Krupka determined that a genetic aberration split Angel's front left leg in two, leaving her with three normal legs and two distinct parts of a fourth. Krupka said the condition doesn't cause pain but gives her problems moving around. He said surgery is unlikely on the about-7-month-old dog. Krupka said any surgery would be cosmetic and not improve the animal's walk.

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