TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Army relaxes tattoo rules to attract recruits

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, which missed its recruiting goal last year, has relaxed its policy banning certain types of tattoos in a bid to attract new soldiers who otherwise would have been barred from serving.

The Army will now allow new recruits and all its current soldiers to have tattoos on their hands and back of their necks as long as they are not "extremist, indecent, sexist or racist," Army officials said on Wednesday.

The Army said it continues to prohibit tattoos anywhere on the head, face or throat area.

But it will allow women recruits and soldiers to sport "permanent makeup" in the form of indelible eye-liner, eyebrows and lip makeup. The Army said this permanent makeup "should be conservative and complement the uniform and complexion in both style and color, and will not be trendy."

Officials said the policy change was made because the Army understands that the number of young men and women with tattoos or permanent makeup has grown in recent years.

"The Army is America. We are America's sons and daughters. America's sons and daughters are getting tattoos. That means that American soldiers are getting tattoos," said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

"The Army is continuing to update our personnel policies. We have people who are otherwise qualified who want to serve and who have answered the call to duty," Hilferty added, and it made no sense to continue to bar them from serving.

"Clearly, if you have a sexist, a racist or a gang tattoo, you are unfit for duty -- you have been and you continue to be," Hilferty said.

The tattoo policy marks the latest move by the Army to try to boost its ability to attract recruits. The Army has raised the maximum age for enlistment, offered a series of financial incentives for signing up, increased the number of recruiters and hired a new advertising agency.

The Army missed by about 7,000 its goal of recruiting 80,000 in fiscal year 2005, which ended on October 1. It was one of the toughest recruiting years since the all-volunteer military was created in 1973.

Army officials have attributed last year's shortfall in part to wariness among young people about volunteering to serve during the Iraq war. While the Army has achieved its monthly recruiting goals in fiscal 2006, it continues to lag behind the number of recruits netted compared to last year at the same time.

The Army cited a 2003 survey of 1,010 people conducted at the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University that found that roughly 30 percent of U.S. adults under age 35 have tattoos, and that the U.S. post-baby boom generations are more than three times as likely as the baby boom generation to have tattoos.

[TexasStooge]

My kingdom for a horse...Well, at least a car

ALMATY (Reuters) - A Kazakh farmer is offering a brand-new Japanese off-roader as a reward for his missing herd of horses, media reported Thursday.

Zhansap Alzhanov's 45 horses went missing two years ago and he has been trying to find them ever since, state news agency Kazinform reported.

"He still believes they can be found," the agency said, adding that he thought they had been stolen.

Horse breeding is an integral part of life for many farmers in the vast steppes of the Central Asian country. Many Kazakhs see the horse as a symbol of their nomadic past and glory dating back to the reign of Genghis Khan.

[TexasStooge]

Princess Diana's dressmaker loses fight over name

BRUSSELS, Germany (Reuters) - Princess Diana's wedding dressmaker, Elizabeth Emanuel, has no right to regain her own name as a trademark, Europe's highest court ruled Thursday.

Emanuel shot to fame with the intense publicity of the late princess's wedding to Britain's Prince Charles in 1981 and has designed clothes for actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins.

But when she was on the brink of bankruptcy, Emanuel sold her company and her trademark in 1997, the year Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.

In 1999, she launched a fight to get her name back after the company that bought her trademark started selling clothes under her signature. Media reports quoted her as saying she was heartbroken that people thought she had designed the garments.

The case went all the way to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court in Luxembourg.

Emanuel's lawyers argued that consumers were being deceived by the trademark since they were under the impression that she was the designer.

But Thursday, the court said there was no deceit and she had no right to her name as a trademark.

"The name Elizabeth Emanuel cannot be regarded in itself as being of such a nature as to deceive the public as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the product it designates," the court said in its ruling.

Even if the average consumer might be influenced by imagining Emanuel designed the garment, what matters is that the characteristics and the qualities of the clothes are guaranteed by the company which owns the trademark, the court said.

The ruling left it up to an English court to determine whether the new owner of the trademark intended to make consumers believe Emanuel is still the designer of the goods.

"In that case, there would be conduct which might be held to be fraudulent," the European judges said, adding that even that would not affect the registration or ownership of the trademark.

Emanuel assigned her business, goodwill and the registered trademark in 1997 to Frostprint Ltd, which changed its name to Elizabeth Emanuel International Ltd ('EE International'). EE International then assigned the registered trade mark to another company, Oakridge Trading Ltd ('Oakridge').

[TexasStooge]

Planned Mother Teresa statue irks Albania Muslims

By Benet Koleka

SHKODER, Albania (Reuters) - Muslims in Albania's northern city of Shkoder are opposing plans to erect a statue to Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian Catholic nun in line for elevation to sainthood by the Vatican.

The dispute is unusual for Albania, where religion was banned for 27 years under the regime of dictator Enver Hoxha and where religious harmony and mixed marriages are the norm.

Seventy percent of the population are liberal Muslims, the rest are Christian Orthodox and Catholic.

But Muslim groups in Shkoder rejected the local council plan for a Teresa statue, saying it "would offend the feelings of Muslims."

"We do not want this statue to be erected in a public place because we see her as a religious figure," said Bashkim Bajraktari, Shkoder's mufti or Muslim religious leader.

"If there must be a statue, let it be in a Catholic space."

Several residents told Reuters they felt there was an underground effort to treat Shkoder as a Catholic town, ignoring its majority Muslim community.

Shkoder's Muslims recently protested against crosses being erected on prominent hilltops.

"These acts jeopardise tolerance. Frankly, we're trying hard to maintain religious harmony," said deputy mufti Arben Halluni.

Skender Drini, a Shkoder writer and former diplomat, conceded the statue plan may have come at an inappropriate time.

"(But) if you rise against Mother Teresa, you rise against your own humanism and patriotism," he said.

Shkoder council has taken little notice of the controversy, deliberating a choice between one possible site at the entrance to the city and another near the center.

Born in Macedonia to Albanian parents, Mother Teresa is claimed by both countries. A square in Macedonia's capital Skopje bears her name, while Albania has named its international airport, a hospital, a square and a state medal after her.

Elsa Decka, 53, who said she was a Catholic with an Orthodox husband and a Muslim daughter-in-law, saw no reason why the statue should not be erected.

"Why not? She has done a lot of good for so many people,"" Decka said.

But men in one Shkoder bar said they would prefer a monument to an Albanian fighter who blew himself up in order to avoid being captured by enemy Serbs, or even to two Ottoman-era pashas remembered fondly in Shkoder.

[TexasStooge]

Online bidders vie for wartime Enigma machine

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - Bidders in an internet auction are offering over 13,000 euros ($15,600) for a wartime German encoding machine, similar to ones whose messages were cracked by British code breakers in World War Two.

The portable Enigma encryption machine made in 1941 has a keyboard and a series of rotors designed to scramble messages. It is up for sale on internet auction site, eBay.

"We've had it inspected by an expert who said that due to its good condition it looks very likely to have been in German state ownership at the time," said Alexander Urff of Sales Service, the Munich-based company selling the device.

Urff said Thursday he was offering the Enigma machine on behalf of a customer whose grandfather bought it just after the war.

He believes the scrambler is genuine but serial numbers which could give a clue to its history had been removed.

Encased in sturdy oak boxes, the Enigma machines were most famously used by Hitler's forces and featured in a successful novel and 2001 film of the same title, starring Kate Winslet.

The film, based on secret work done at Britain's Bletchley Park during the war, is about a young man who helps the British authorities to break the Nazis' military codes.

[TexasStooge]

Winner Named for 'Home Office From Hell'

NEW YORK (AP) - If you work from an office in your home, you probably have a pretty good idea of the meaning of the word "frustrating." Jason Welshonse does. He runs a computer support and consulting firm and has just won a competition called the "Home Office From Hell Contest."

Entrants had to list the top ten reasons they needed to escape their home offices.

Among the winner's reasons: "I have to yell "Phone!" really loud when the phone rings to make sure all TV's and radios get muted so I can answer it."

Another winning reason: "I've started to refer to my pets as employees."

The contest was sponsored by offices2share.com, a Website that helps small businesses find short-term, ready-to-use office space.

The prize is a pre-paid one-year office lease at any offices2share.com location.

[TexasStooge]

Watch Out: Park Infested With Bird Poop

By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. - The area around Lake Eola has it all — a sparkling fountain, waterside cafe, swan boat rides and a bevy of bird droppings.

The foul smelling white film cakes lamp posts, covers sidewalks and park benches and stains the bushes and trees around a 100-foot stretch of the lake. Drivers who dare park their cars do so at their own risk. Within minutes, a car can turn from black to spotted along "bird poop alley," as residents call it.

The problem, triggered when some trees thousands of cormorants used were removed from an island, has gotten so bad city officials posted four signs last week to warn passers-by. But the signs, which read "Caution — Entering Bird Dropping Area," don't really do the situation justice.

Cormorants, which dive into the water to catch fish and migrate south annually, are such prolific poopers that their South American cousins helped create Peru's guano islands.

Angie Martinez parked her red Honda Civic under a tree for 20 minutes Tuesday when it was hit by the poopstorm.

"I went straight to get my car cleaned," she said. "I think it was kind of funny. As soon as a turned away, I saw my car bombed from the birds."

Indira Sawh and her co-workers have a bird's eye view of the problem. They work in an office building across the street and often watch people get dirtied.

"The other day we saw four guys in suits going to lunch and the guy's entire suit got covered in bird poop," said Sawh. "The smell is the worst part of it all."

In an attempt to wash the white waste, the city has the sidewalks and street pressure cleaned twice a week, said Orlando Rolon, a spokesman for Mayor Buddy Dyer. But Sawh said that's hopeless.

"We're wasting taxpayer dollars," she said.

The city tried to remove the trees, but learned that the birds' nests were protected under federal law, Rolon said.

The situation was tolerable until city workers removed cypress trees off a small island in the middle of the lake.

"The bird droppings were polluting the lake so bad that it was creating algae that was creating a nasty smell," Rolon said.

The birds quickly migrated to nearby oaks and soon sidewalks, benches and people were pummeled.

Rolon said the city has consulted with botanists about ways to chemically treat the trees so they would produce more branches.

"When (the birds) return next year we hope the trees will be so full of growth that they will not want to nest there," he said.

But some Orlando residents are for the birds. Jose Vega and his sister, Maria, enjoyed a fearless stroll down the speckled sidewalk Tuesday.

"I love the birds," Jose said. "If it poops on my head, what am I going to go? I'll go wash it off."

[TexasStooge]

Cat Stuck in Wall Waves Paw for Help

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A cat stuck in a wall at a house under construction initiated his rescue when he caught the attention of a prospective buyer by meowing and waving his paw out a small hole.

The cat had gotten stuck behind the wall but found a gap between a gas pipe and the wall board where he could stick out his paw. He was spotted Saturday by someone touring the house.

Collierville Animal Services supervisor Nina Wingfield said she heard a "hoarse meow" after she arrived at the house.

"When he knew we were there, it was a very hoarse, frantic meow," she said.

Wingfield freed the feline by cutting away the wall board with a knife.

"He had his paw out touching — not clawing — the whole time, like he was saying 'Come on! Come on,'" Wingfield said.

She thinks the cat, who had been stuck without food long enough for his ribs to be showing, is a lost pet. The owners have until Friday to come forward and claim him before he will be offered for adoption to someone else.

In the meantime, the animal shelter is calling him by a new name: Wally.
___

Information from: The Commercial Appeal

[TexasStooge]

Cop Wrestles Pot Bags Out of Dog's Mouth

BOSTON, Mass. (AP) - This Prada's bag was no designer purse. A Boston detective searching the apartment of a drug suspect wound up wrestling a sack containing 108 bags of marijuana out of the clenched jaws of a pitbull named Prada.

The dog was running around carrying a tan-colored bag Tuesday as police were searching the apartment, where they had already found a loaded gun, $1,000 cash and 14 bags of marijuana.

Prada did not give up without a fight.

When an officer tried to grab Prada's bag, the pooch pulled back. The plastic tore, and police said could they could see bags of marijuana inside the sack in Prada's mouth.

"All 108 bags were recovered from the dog's mouth after a vigorous struggle," police said in a written statement.

Officers locked Prada in a dog crate. They also arrested three people at the apartment.

[TexasStooge]

Stolen Bird's Squawks Lead to Return

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. (AP) - Squawks heard by smokers on break led to the end of a purloined cockatoo caper with the $2,000 bird back on its perch at a New Jersey pet store.

The noise came from a trash bin outside University MRI in northeast Philadelphia. Technologist Nancy Hellmuth lifted the lid and thought she had found a chicken, "because all I saw was all these feathers."

Police said whoever stole the baby Moluccan cockatoo may have dumped it because widespread publicity about the theft on the region's TV airwaves made the bird too hot to hang onto.

"It was, like, radioactive," Burlington, N.J., police Detective Jim Barnes said.

A trash truck driver who arrived to empty the bin put on his heavy gloves and carried the bird inside, and Hellmuth wrapped it in her lab coat.

Workers who had heard the TV reports called Bird Paradise in Burlington, N.J., and store manager Kristine Collins soon arrived with a thermos of formula for the hungry 3 1/2-month old bird.

"She wrapped her all up in a towel and was hugging her and kissing her," Hellmuth said. And she said Peaches was "thrilled" to see Collins. "She stopped squawking and crying," Hellmuth said.

Peaches was back on her perch at the store late Tuesday, resting after a checkup by a veterinarian, Collins said.

[TexasStooge]

Special Ambulance Handling Obese in Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - An ambulance company has responded to oversize needs in southern Nevada by providing an ambulance equipped to handle patients weighing 500 pounds or more.

"We're getting more and more requests to transport larger patients every day," said Roy Carroll, operations manager at American Medical Response, one of two companies with Clark County Fire Department contracts to provide medical transport in and around Las Vegas.

Crews have called 75 times in the last six months for additional manpower to handle morbidly obese patients, said Chris Piper, a western regional spokesman for Greenwood, Colo.-based AMR. He said the largest patients weighed more than 500 pounds.

Carroll, in Las Vegas, called handling large patients difficult and unsafe for patients, paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

"Not only does this person not fit, there's a chance he or she could fall," Carroll said. "Our job is to get that patient to where they need to be safely and in a dignified manner. Traditional ambulances can't do that."

The company recently put into service a $250,000 bariatric ambulance, which looks like its other 80 ambulances, but is extra-wide and has a larger gurney, a winch and ramps capable of loading up to 1,600 pounds.

Clark County spokesman Bob Leinbach called the need for the larger ambulances obvious.

"If you don't think it's needed, all you have to do is look around," Leinbach said. "Americans are heavier."

The county's other ambulance provider is awaiting delivery of a bariatric ambulance and recently bought four electric gurneys capable of handling patients weighing up to 750 pounds, said Matthew Cox, a spokesman for MedicWest Ambulance.

"There's less stress on the paramedics' backs and it's a better stabilizer for the patient," Cox said.

Of Nevada's 1.7 million adult residents in 2004, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Health Division estimated that 21 percent, or about 357,000, were obese.
___

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal

[TexasStooge]

Misspelled Street Sign Confuses Police

CASCO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - When State Police were slow to find her home when she called to report a suspicious car, Connie Wojtyca wondered why.

She found out that the delay was because her road was misspelled on street signs put up by the St. Clair County Road Commission.

According to residents in Casco Township, they live on "Lubahn" Road. But somewhere along the line, their road signs got switched to "Labuhn."

The spelling delayed the trooper who responded to her call, Wojtyca said.

"They came, but they had a hard time finding the road because of the spelling," Wojtyca told the Times Herald of Port Huron for a story published Wednesday.

Jim Warner, the road commission's engineering director, said in a memo that the spelling was inadvertently changed when maps were redrawn in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

The road commission plans to fix the mistake.

Wojtyca brought the spelling error to the commission's attention last fall because she worried about responses to future emergencies.

The road commission checked its records, and a few months later Warner presented his findings to the commission.

The road name comes from Civil War veteran Christian Lubahn, who lived there in the 1800s.

The name was listed as Lubahn in all county records until 20 or 30 years ago. Now it's Lubahn in some places and Labuhn in others.

Residents, though, still call the road by its original name, despite the signs.

"We have it (as Lubahn) on our driver's license and everything," said Constance August, 66, who has lived there for 30 years.

Wojtyca said she and her husband have never known the road by anything other than Lubahn.

"I knew it was a family name. To me, that's important," she said.

The road should go back to Lubahn after a May 16 public hearing and commission meeting, where a resolution is expected to be approved correcting the name.
___

Information from: Times Herald

[TexasStooge]

Man Crashes Car After Snake Attacks Him

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - A man crashed his car after a pet snake he had wrapped around his neck began attacking him, authorities said.

Witnesses reported that Courtland Page Johnson, 30, of East Naples, was driving erratically and crashed his PT Cruiser into several barricades about 9 p.m. Tuesday. He got out of his car, wrestled with the snake and then drove off, reports said.

When authorities caught up with Johnson at his home, he told them he crashed into another car that had stopped short in front of him. After questioning, Johnson admitted he panicked when his snake bit him.

He had cuts and freshly dried blood on his body, but did not need medical attention, reports said.

Johnson was charged with leaving the scene of a crash.
___

Information from: Naples Daily News

[TexasStooge]

Family Members Charged in Explosives Bust

FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) - Three family members were charged Thursday after authorities found 114 explosive devices and more than 20 pounds of explosives at their home near the Iowa border on Tuesday.

Marvin D. Yahnke, 48, his wife, Shirley, 49 and their son Daniel, 19, were charged in Faribault County District Court with manufacturing and possessing explosive devices. The couple's 15-year-old son was also arrested and may be charged in juvenile court.

"At this point, we don't have any indication that they were targeting any people," said deputy Mike Gormley, with the Faribault County Sheriff's Office. "We're not sure if this was for fun or if they had other things in mind."

The family has been linked by investigators to the bombing of a portable toilet in Albert Lea and a half-dozen mailbox explosions in rural Freeborn County over the past few months. Gormley said no one has been injured.

The explosives seized at the house in Frost were detonated by the Bloomington bomb squad early Wednesday morning.
___

Information from: Star Tribune

[TexasStooge]

Philly Plumbers Upset by Waterless Urinals

By DEBORAH YAO, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. - This city's hoped-for bragging rights as home of America's tallest environmentally friendly building could go down the toilet.

In a city where organized labor is a force to be reckoned with, the plumbers union has been raising a stink about a developer's plans to install 116 waterless, no-flush urinals in what will be Philadelphia's biggest skyscraper.

Developer Liberty Property Trust says the urinals would save 1.6 million gallons of water a year at the 57-story Comcast Center, expected to open next year.

But the union put out the word it doesn't like the idea of waterless urinals — fewer pipes mean less work.

The city's licensing department, whose approval is needed for waterless urinals, has not yet rendered a decision.

The mayor's office has stepped in to try to save the urinals, which use a cartridge at the base to trap odors and sediment as waste passes through.

It is telling the plumbers that the city's building boom will provide plenty of work for them and that even waterless urinal systems need some plumbing connections, said Stephanie Naidoff, city commerce director.

Philadelphia's unions have periodically put the city in a difficult spot.

For years, convention groups were canceling bookings at the Pennsylvania Convention Center because of difficulties working with six unions. New rules were established in 2003 to allow convention groups to deal instead with a middleman, a labor supplier. A few months later, the electricians union temporarily shut off power and picketed the center in a dispute with the supplier.

In 2004, the MTV reality show "The Real World" briefly pulled up stakes after union workers, in a dispute over hiring practices, picketed the house the cast was to live in. The show's producers and labor leaders eventually negotiated a deal to bring the show back.

Edward Keenan, the business manager of Plumbers Union Local 690, did not return calls for comment. Liberty Property Trust said only that it is "currently engaged in an administrative process with the city to obtain the necessary approvals."

Waterless urinals were introduced in the early 1990s. Thousands are in use around the country, including such places as the San Diego Zoo, Walt Disney World and the Rose Bowl.

[TexasStooge]

Did a woman's felony almost deny her justice?

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - Charlotte Johnson said three weeks after she was lauded for wrestling a bat from an alleged attacker, she's outraged that the Tarrant County District Attorney's office declined to prosecute the case.

Johnson said an angry motorist behind her in a drive-thru emerged from his car and threatened her with a bat.

"And he was in my face with the bat talking about how he was going to bust my windows out and stuff," she said.

But Johnson wrestled the bat away from her attacker, beat him over the head and called 911. Police charged 46-year old David Kalnbach with felony assault.

Johnson said she presumed that the district attorney's case against her attacker was progressing until an article by Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland reported that prosecutors had declined to take her case. The reason appeared to be that Johnson was not so much a victim as she was a former felon.

Johnson had run afoul of the law 15 years earlier and shot a woman.

"I paid my debt to society," she said.

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Dorbandt Carroll gave the Dallas Morning News little reason as to why he declined to prosecute.

"I reviewed the case, I cannot remember the reasons I put on it," he said. "[Kalnbach] got the worst end of the deal. I thought if anyone needed to be filed on she did."

Johnson said she was outraged.

"You're saying that just because I have a background anybody can come and attack me?" she asked.

Forest Hill Police said they thought they had a good case against Kalnbach.

"With the independent witnesses that were involved in the case, it was clear to our investigators that probable case existed to affect an arrest," said Lt. Chris Hebert.

But just hours after the Dallas Morning News' story hit the streets, the district attorney decided to reopen the case, but declined to comment as to why.

Meanwhile, Johnson said she feels better but still bitter.

"If it wasn't for the newspaper and the media, all of this justice never would have gotten done," she said.

[TexasStooge]

DEA says Virgin Mary tombstones used to hide cocaine

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal agents on Thursday said they had broken up a ring of drug smugglers who used tombstones featuring the Virgin Mary to move hundreds of pounds of cocaine into the United States from Mexico.

The Drug Enforcement Agency announced arrests of 12 people as part of an alleged conspiracy stretching from New York to Mexico City.

Four of those arrests came Thursday, one in Houston and three after an early morning raid on a warehouse in New York's Brooklyn borough.

At the warehouse, agents found bricks of cocaine packed inside tombstones, some decorated with figures of the Virgin Mary, the DEA said.

"Like grave robbers who have no respect for the dead, this drug organization used revered tombstones to smuggle millions of dollars worth of cocaine into New York City," said John Gilbride, the special agent in charge of the New York DEA office.

At the Brooklyn warehouse, agents found eight tombstones, five of which were packed with 20 to 25 kilograms each of cocaine. They also found remnants of smashed tombstones.

An earlier seizure at a Long Island stash house netted 84 kilograms of cocaine and nearly $500,000 in drug proceeds, officials said.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Omni Presence, began in May 2005 based on a tip from Long Island's Nassau County investigators, and it eventually drew in law enforcement personnel in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and Florida.

The DEA said the raids dismantled the entire supply chain, from the source in Mexico to the New York street dealers. A New York grand jury has indicted the suspects on charges including money laundering, possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy.

Last month, the DEA said it had arrested a separate group of suspected smugglers who surgically inserted drugs into puppies as part of another scheme.

[TexasStooge]

Bumper crop of foreign brides in S.Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean men in rural areas are having a tough time wooing local women with prospects of spending a lifetime with them on the farm and are increasingly turning to brokers to find foreign brides.

In 2005, more than one in three men in rural areas married a women from overseas, mostly from China or Vietnam, figures released this week by South Korea's National Statistical Office (NSO) showed.

"The rates of international marriages have increased because the values of Koreans have become more liberal," said Park Kyung-ae, an official with the NSO.

Several rural counties have launched programmes to provide financial support for South Korean men to help them pay for mail-order brides.

They have also set up programmes to help foreign spouses adjust to a new life in the country.

One of the biggest growth trends in almost completely homogeneous South Korea last year was finding a foreign spouse, with 14 percent of all weddings in 2005 being international marriages, the statistics office said.

[TexasStooge]

Take bribes but be fair, soccer refs told

LAGOS (Reuters) - Football referees in Nigeria can take bribes from clubs but should not allow them to influence their decisions on the pitch, a football official said on Friday.

Fanny Amun, acting Secretary-General of the Nigerian Football Association, said bribery was common in the Nigerian game.

"We know match officials are offered money or anything to influence matches and they can accept it," Amun told Reuters on Friday.

Amun first made the statement earlier in the week to a football seminar in the capital Abuja, prompting protests from other officials.

"Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn't favor those offering the bribe," Amun said.

At the seminar, Nigerian football league chairman Oyuiki Obaseki reprimanded referees for poor quality match reports, saying that bribery was to blame.

"The quality of your reports have not done our league any good, so please desist from corrupt practices," he told delegates.

Despite a high-profile campaign to stamp out graft in the impoverished African country, Nigeria consistently ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world -- and football is no exception.

[TexasStooge]

Anger boiling? Smash plates at eatery

By Roli Ng

GERONA, Philippines (Reuters) - Ardith Vescara is an angry young woman. On top of family and academic pressure, the 13-year-old Filipino says boys tease her at school.

But instead of letting her emotions eat away at her, she is treating herself to an unusual form of anger management.

At the Isdaan restaurant in Gerona, about three hours north of Manila, Vescara and other patrons work out their stress for 15 pesos (30 U.S. cents) a go by hurling plates at the "wall of fury" emblazoned with words such as ex-wife, boss and lover.

A shout of "tacsiyapo" -- or "shame on you" in the local dialect -- usually accompanies the sound of smashing crockery.

Vases and bowls are also available, while the wealthier of the furious patrons can toss an old TV set for 1,300 pesos.

Not only is throwing things at the restaurant much cheaper than yoga lessons or professional therapy, it is a lot more fun.

"Isn't it better to break these plates than your personal stuff at home?" Vescara said with a smile.

Manila residents fleeing the congested capital flock to the restaurant on weekends before heading to nearby beaches or into the mountains with much less emotional baggage.

Arnold Viola, the manager of Isdaan, said it was not unusual for husbands and wives to target each other on the wall before returning to the restaurant to enjoy a romantic meal.

"The top three targets are boss/manager; wine, women and gambling; and lastly the loan sharks," said Viola.

Angie Trumpeta, a medical student, made the long journey after a marathon run of exams.

"Something like this would help release all of your stress," she said while flinging plates at the wall.

It is not just customers who benefit. Isdaan's staff enjoy throwing plates at the "perennially complaining customers" sign.

An Elvis impersonator who entertains the patrons, Jerwin Cedillo, said it was not always easy dealing with angry people but they usually left Isdaan in a calmer state of mind.

"To most people who have pent-up emotions, this wall of fury is the best way to let go of all your anger," he said.