Study shows secret to gas-free beans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two strains of bacteria are the key to making beans flatulence-free, Venezuelan researchers reported on Tuesday.
They identified two bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, which can be added to beans so they cause minimal distress to those who eat them, and to those around the bean-lovers, Marisela Granito of Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela and colleagues reported.
Flatulence is gas released by bacteria that live in the large intestine when they break down food. Fermenting makes food more digestible earlier on.
Writing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Granito and colleagues found that adding these two gut bacteria to beans before cooking them made them even less likely to cause flatulence.
They tested black beans, known scientifically as Phaseolus vulgaris.
"Legumes, and particularly Phaseolus vulgaris, are an important source of nutrients, especially in developing countries," Granito's team wrote in the report.
"In spite of being part of the staple diets of these populations, their consumption is limited by the flatulence they produce."
Smart cooks know they can ferment beans, and make them less
gas-inducing, by cooking them in the liquor from a previous batch. But Granito's team wanted to find out just which bacteria were responsible for this.
When the researchers fermented black beans with the two bacteria, they found it decreased the soluble fiber content by more than 60 percent and lowered levels of raffinose, a compound known to cause gas, by 88 percent.
They fed the beans to rats and then analyzed the rats' droppings to ensure that the beans were digested and kept their nutritional value.
When pre-soaked in the L. casei, the beans stayed nutritious and produced few gas-causing compounds, they reported.
"Therefore, the lactic acid bacteria involved in the bean fermentation, which include L. casei as a probiotic, could be used as functional starter cultures in the food industry," the researchers wrote.
"Likewise, the cooking applied after induced fermentation produced an additional diminution of the compounds related to flatulence."
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Drivers run dry to beat gas prices
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - Some California drivers are resorting to desperate measures to beat the surge in gas prices at the pump -- deliberately running dry on the state's freeways and simply waiting for rescue.
"Every time fuel goes up, we start noticing it. But right now we are noticing it a lot more," Andy Lujan, owner of California Coach Towing in Orange County, said on Tuesday.
Lujan's 20 trucks roam the busy freeways of Orange and Los Angeles counties as part of a publicly funded patrol that gives a free gallon of gas to drivers who have run out of fuel. It also offers other basic assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down.
"You say to some of them 'hey, you've run out of gas' and they say 'yeah, it's too expensive.' I think the percentage is going to increase," Lujan said.
Gas prices in California, where the car is king, are some of the highest in the nation at more than $3 a gallon and rising.
Moshe Ben Dayan, whose TipTopTow company performs a similar service in Los Angeles' affluent west side, said some people were taking advantage of the freeway service patrol.
"There was one guy a while back who was stopping every morning and trying to get his one free gallon," said Dayan. "I think it is going to be more drastic when the price of gas is closer to $4 a gallon."
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - Some California drivers are resorting to desperate measures to beat the surge in gas prices at the pump -- deliberately running dry on the state's freeways and simply waiting for rescue.
"Every time fuel goes up, we start noticing it. But right now we are noticing it a lot more," Andy Lujan, owner of California Coach Towing in Orange County, said on Tuesday.
Lujan's 20 trucks roam the busy freeways of Orange and Los Angeles counties as part of a publicly funded patrol that gives a free gallon of gas to drivers who have run out of fuel. It also offers other basic assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down.
"You say to some of them 'hey, you've run out of gas' and they say 'yeah, it's too expensive.' I think the percentage is going to increase," Lujan said.
Gas prices in California, where the car is king, are some of the highest in the nation at more than $3 a gallon and rising.
Moshe Ben Dayan, whose TipTopTow company performs a similar service in Los Angeles' affluent west side, said some people were taking advantage of the freeway service patrol.
"There was one guy a while back who was stopping every morning and trying to get his one free gallon," said Dayan. "I think it is going to be more drastic when the price of gas is closer to $4 a gallon."
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Cat survives 8 days in wall of Dallas home
By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Mike and Joanna Brown said they weren't sure if they should nickname their cat "Bunny" or "Sheetrock" after she was found two weeks after vanishing inside a neighboring home's walls.
Miss Kitty was returned to the couple on Easter, hence the nickname "Bunny."
Ten years ago, the Brown family found the stray cat stranded and alone in the street. Ever since that day, Mike Brown said the cat has been somewhat of a lovable nuisance.
"I think she's had three eye surgeries," he said. "This has been the most expensive stray of any cat in the world, but she's worth it."
But one day the couple said the cat went missing, and more than two weeks went by with no word or sign of the cat despite fliers displayed throughout the neighborhood.
But Brown said just as he and his wife began to lose hope, they finally heard a familiar sound while checking out a nearby home under construction.
"...We walked through this jack-and-jill bathroom, and when we got right here we heard a very faint 'meow,'" he said, pointing to one spot in the house. "I said, 'kitty, kitty, kitty,' and the cat went ballistic. We found the cat was actually in here in this wall."
The cat had somehow ended up perched tightly on a two-by-four sealed inside a wall of the home. The contractor busted through the wall, and Miss Kitty once again was saved by the Brown family.
"He goes, 'We sheetrocked this house eight days ago," Brown said. "So, she had been in there for eight days and she lost seven pounds."
He said Miss Kitty's experience made him a believer in the old "nine lives" cat tale.
"She wasted probably five of them in that house over there," he said. "She's got about four left."
By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Mike and Joanna Brown said they weren't sure if they should nickname their cat "Bunny" or "Sheetrock" after she was found two weeks after vanishing inside a neighboring home's walls.
Miss Kitty was returned to the couple on Easter, hence the nickname "Bunny."
Ten years ago, the Brown family found the stray cat stranded and alone in the street. Ever since that day, Mike Brown said the cat has been somewhat of a lovable nuisance.
"I think she's had three eye surgeries," he said. "This has been the most expensive stray of any cat in the world, but she's worth it."
But one day the couple said the cat went missing, and more than two weeks went by with no word or sign of the cat despite fliers displayed throughout the neighborhood.
But Brown said just as he and his wife began to lose hope, they finally heard a familiar sound while checking out a nearby home under construction.
"...We walked through this jack-and-jill bathroom, and when we got right here we heard a very faint 'meow,'" he said, pointing to one spot in the house. "I said, 'kitty, kitty, kitty,' and the cat went ballistic. We found the cat was actually in here in this wall."
The cat had somehow ended up perched tightly on a two-by-four sealed inside a wall of the home. The contractor busted through the wall, and Miss Kitty once again was saved by the Brown family.
"He goes, 'We sheetrocked this house eight days ago," Brown said. "So, she had been in there for eight days and she lost seven pounds."
He said Miss Kitty's experience made him a believer in the old "nine lives" cat tale.
"She wasted probably five of them in that house over there," he said. "She's got about four left."
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Eye the Anaconda Survives Music Store Fire
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Firefighters expected to find only charred debris when they poked through the burned out hulk of a music store. Instead, they stumbled upon a slithering, 6-foot anaconda.
Authorities said some of the 40- to 50-pound snake's skin was peeling but otherwise she was in good health.
Firefighters were told that the snake, named Eye, had been in a state of hibernation, said Santa Ana fire Capt. Ben Gonzales.
"They told us it was pretty hungry," Gonzales said. "They told us that after we'd all been handling it."
Eye belongs to Jonathan Kent, owner of the burned out Orbit Studios store. Kent, 35, was arrested Monday for investigation of setting the fire, which caused $550,000 in damage.
He was being held at the Central Men's Jail on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department Web site.
Eye likely escaped serious harm because snakes often crawl under things and into hidden spaces that could offer protection from a fire, said Don Boyer, the San Diego Zoo's reptiles curator.
The reptile was taken to the Orange County Animal Shelter and will be put up for adoption if Kent doesn't reclaim her, officials said.
___
Information from: The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Firefighters expected to find only charred debris when they poked through the burned out hulk of a music store. Instead, they stumbled upon a slithering, 6-foot anaconda.
Authorities said some of the 40- to 50-pound snake's skin was peeling but otherwise she was in good health.
Firefighters were told that the snake, named Eye, had been in a state of hibernation, said Santa Ana fire Capt. Ben Gonzales.
"They told us it was pretty hungry," Gonzales said. "They told us that after we'd all been handling it."
Eye belongs to Jonathan Kent, owner of the burned out Orbit Studios store. Kent, 35, was arrested Monday for investigation of setting the fire, which caused $550,000 in damage.
He was being held at the Central Men's Jail on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department Web site.
Eye likely escaped serious harm because snakes often crawl under things and into hidden spaces that could offer protection from a fire, said Don Boyer, the San Diego Zoo's reptiles curator.
The reptile was taken to the Orange County Animal Shelter and will be put up for adoption if Kent doesn't reclaim her, officials said.
___
Information from: The Orange County Register
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Indian Man Claims He Found Condom in Cola
NEW DELHI (AP) - A consumer court Wednesday ordered soft drink maker PepsiCo to pay financial damages after a customer found a condom inside a bottle, a news report said.
Calling the case "rare" and one that had a serious bearing on public health, the court ordered the company to pay 100,000 rupees ($2,200) to a legal aid fund for consumers, and 20,000 rupees ($450) to the complainant, Press Trust of India reported.
"This case is an eye-opener for others who are engaged in manufacturing soft drinks and are required to maintain the prescribed standards of purity in (the) public interest," the news agency quoted the three-judge panel as saying.
Calls to PepsiCo spokesman Annie Kishen's phone went unanswered Wednesday.
Complainant Sudesh Sharma, a resident of Ujhani village near New Delhi, said he fell sick after consuming one of the two Pepsi bottles he bought in 2003.
Sharma said he found dirt and contaminants in the bottle, and suffered from insomnia, severe headache and stomach pain. He found the condom in the other unopened bottle, PTI reported.
Pepsi denied negligence at the proceedings, saying the bottle was a fake.
NEW DELHI (AP) - A consumer court Wednesday ordered soft drink maker PepsiCo to pay financial damages after a customer found a condom inside a bottle, a news report said.
Calling the case "rare" and one that had a serious bearing on public health, the court ordered the company to pay 100,000 rupees ($2,200) to a legal aid fund for consumers, and 20,000 rupees ($450) to the complainant, Press Trust of India reported.
"This case is an eye-opener for others who are engaged in manufacturing soft drinks and are required to maintain the prescribed standards of purity in (the) public interest," the news agency quoted the three-judge panel as saying.
Calls to PepsiCo spokesman Annie Kishen's phone went unanswered Wednesday.
Complainant Sudesh Sharma, a resident of Ujhani village near New Delhi, said he fell sick after consuming one of the two Pepsi bottles he bought in 2003.
Sharma said he found dirt and contaminants in the bottle, and suffered from insomnia, severe headache and stomach pain. He found the condom in the other unopened bottle, PTI reported.
Pepsi denied negligence at the proceedings, saying the bottle was a fake.
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Search on to find disappearing hedgehogs
LONDON, England (Reuters) - The search is on for Britain's small, prickly, shy -- and rapidly disappearing -- hedgehogs.
On the eve of Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People's Trust for Endangered Species are launching HogWatch -- a plea for people to report where and when they last saw one of the inquisitive but shy animals.
"It is vital to know where hedgehogs are still present and determine why their numbers appear to be falling," said Paul Bright, an ecology lecturer at London University.
"Hedgehogs have been around for 20 million years -- we want to ensure they will be around in the next century."
A recent survey calculated that the number of hedgehogs, which have adapted as readily to living in urban gardens as in the countryside, fell by one fifth in Britain between 2001 and 2005.
Participants in the Internet survey are asked to go to http://www.HogWatch.org.uk and answer three simple questions, with the accumulated results being reproduced as a hog map of Britain.
"Letting us know if you haven't seen hedgehogs is just as important as letting us know that you have," Bright said.
LONDON, England (Reuters) - The search is on for Britain's small, prickly, shy -- and rapidly disappearing -- hedgehogs.
On the eve of Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People's Trust for Endangered Species are launching HogWatch -- a plea for people to report where and when they last saw one of the inquisitive but shy animals.
"It is vital to know where hedgehogs are still present and determine why their numbers appear to be falling," said Paul Bright, an ecology lecturer at London University.
"Hedgehogs have been around for 20 million years -- we want to ensure they will be around in the next century."
A recent survey calculated that the number of hedgehogs, which have adapted as readily to living in urban gardens as in the countryside, fell by one fifth in Britain between 2001 and 2005.
Participants in the Internet survey are asked to go to http://www.HogWatch.org.uk and answer three simple questions, with the accumulated results being reproduced as a hog map of Britain.
"Letting us know if you haven't seen hedgehogs is just as important as letting us know that you have," Bright said.
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Hospital won't evict family of hawks
Mesquite: Baylor's got a new maternity wing
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
MESQUITE, Texas - Baylor Health Care System has gone to new heights to care for expectant mothers – specifically the ones with wings and sharp curved beaks.
Forty feet above the traffic on Interstate 30 in Mesquite, a family of red-tailed hawks is roosting on a billboard, sheltered from the wind by a sign advertising a long-gone Baylor event.
Early this month, Impact Outdoor Advertising employees discovered an imposing mother hawk and her mate nestled on several eggs in a nest of leafy branches.
They needed to change the outdated sign but were given strict instructions not to disturb the outdoor maternity ward, said Christie Hansen, a Baylor marketing production coordinator who also works as an animal-rescue volunteer.
"The fledglings will fly away, and Mama and Dad will leave. But the nest will stay there," she said.
Not that Keith Rose and his co-workers were planning to come anywhere near the overprotective parents. Mr. Rose discovered the birds when the mother hawk reared out of the nest at him.
On Wednesday, Mr. Rose returned to see whether they had moved on. But the mother spread her wings protectively over the eggs, stretched her hooked beak wide and blasted him with a series of rasping screams.
Mr. Rose was duly warned and kept a safe distance from the hawks on the other end of the catwalk.
The smaller male darted into the air, his wings spanning several feet and reddish tail feathers illuminated in the sunlight. He swooped threateningly over Mr. Rose's head and returned with another hawk.
"Hey, there's two of them up there now!" Mr. Rose shouted to his co-workers on the ground. "She's calling out the cavalry."
Curtis Williams, another billboard installer, craned his neck to look up at Mr. Rose.
"You know how mothers are with their babies. She'll attack anybody who gets close to that nest," he observed.
The billboard is apparently the perfect perch for nesting hawks, who return to the same spot each spring during mating season to raise their young.
Prudence Koeninger, president of DFW Wildlife Coalition, said the red-tailed hawk is a magnificent hunter and one of the most admired among raptors.
But if curious onlookers aren't deterred by fines of up to $200,000 for violations relating to the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act of 1998, the hawks may be forced to fend for themselves.
In addition to being loyal mates, red-tailed hawks are aggressive birds that defend their territory.
"The talons alone on their feet are pretty powerful," she said. "It could be very dangerous."
Migratory birds, including their feathers and nests, are protected under laws dating to 1918. But residents of a swank Fifth Avenue high-rise ruffled feathers in 2004 in New York City when they evicted red-tailed hawks from their building.
After protests, the birds were allowed to return to their longtime nesting ground.
The "Baylor Birds" will probably roost for about 45 days after the eggs hatch, until the babies are ready to fly.
"Yep, this production is on hold," Mr. Rose said, slapping his hand against the outdated billboard.
Mesquite: Baylor's got a new maternity wing
By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News
MESQUITE, Texas - Baylor Health Care System has gone to new heights to care for expectant mothers – specifically the ones with wings and sharp curved beaks.
Forty feet above the traffic on Interstate 30 in Mesquite, a family of red-tailed hawks is roosting on a billboard, sheltered from the wind by a sign advertising a long-gone Baylor event.
Early this month, Impact Outdoor Advertising employees discovered an imposing mother hawk and her mate nestled on several eggs in a nest of leafy branches.
They needed to change the outdated sign but were given strict instructions not to disturb the outdoor maternity ward, said Christie Hansen, a Baylor marketing production coordinator who also works as an animal-rescue volunteer.
"The fledglings will fly away, and Mama and Dad will leave. But the nest will stay there," she said.
Not that Keith Rose and his co-workers were planning to come anywhere near the overprotective parents. Mr. Rose discovered the birds when the mother hawk reared out of the nest at him.
On Wednesday, Mr. Rose returned to see whether they had moved on. But the mother spread her wings protectively over the eggs, stretched her hooked beak wide and blasted him with a series of rasping screams.
Mr. Rose was duly warned and kept a safe distance from the hawks on the other end of the catwalk.
The smaller male darted into the air, his wings spanning several feet and reddish tail feathers illuminated in the sunlight. He swooped threateningly over Mr. Rose's head and returned with another hawk.
"Hey, there's two of them up there now!" Mr. Rose shouted to his co-workers on the ground. "She's calling out the cavalry."
Curtis Williams, another billboard installer, craned his neck to look up at Mr. Rose.
"You know how mothers are with their babies. She'll attack anybody who gets close to that nest," he observed.
The billboard is apparently the perfect perch for nesting hawks, who return to the same spot each spring during mating season to raise their young.
Prudence Koeninger, president of DFW Wildlife Coalition, said the red-tailed hawk is a magnificent hunter and one of the most admired among raptors.
But if curious onlookers aren't deterred by fines of up to $200,000 for violations relating to the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act of 1998, the hawks may be forced to fend for themselves.
In addition to being loyal mates, red-tailed hawks are aggressive birds that defend their territory.
"The talons alone on their feet are pretty powerful," she said. "It could be very dangerous."
Migratory birds, including their feathers and nests, are protected under laws dating to 1918. But residents of a swank Fifth Avenue high-rise ruffled feathers in 2004 in New York City when they evicted red-tailed hawks from their building.
After protests, the birds were allowed to return to their longtime nesting ground.
The "Baylor Birds" will probably roost for about 45 days after the eggs hatch, until the babies are ready to fly.
"Yep, this production is on hold," Mr. Rose said, slapping his hand against the outdated billboard.
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Man Hires Crane to Uproot Newsstands
PHILADELPHIA, Penn. (AP) - A man hired a crane to uproot half a dozen newsstands that were not his and move them to street corners where he had sought, but had not received, permits to do business, officials said.
"I believe he knew exactly what he was doing," Robert D. Solvibile, commissioner of licenses and inspections, said Tuesday. He said there didn't seem to be a rational basis for where the newsstands went, with one from Center City being transported to Northeast Philadelphia and another from the Northeast to Center City.
John Rocco, chairman of the Newsstand Association of Philadelphia, said he got phone calls from members who showed up for work to find their businesses gone, looked into it, and called police when he learned about the crane, calling the theft of the newsstands — candy, magazines and all — "outrageous."
The newsstands cannot be returned until detectives finish their investigation.
PHILADELPHIA, Penn. (AP) - A man hired a crane to uproot half a dozen newsstands that were not his and move them to street corners where he had sought, but had not received, permits to do business, officials said.
"I believe he knew exactly what he was doing," Robert D. Solvibile, commissioner of licenses and inspections, said Tuesday. He said there didn't seem to be a rational basis for where the newsstands went, with one from Center City being transported to Northeast Philadelphia and another from the Northeast to Center City.
John Rocco, chairman of the Newsstand Association of Philadelphia, said he got phone calls from members who showed up for work to find their businesses gone, looked into it, and called police when he learned about the crane, calling the theft of the newsstands — candy, magazines and all — "outrageous."
The newsstands cannot be returned until detectives finish their investigation.
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Woman Discovers Grenade in Her Backyard
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A woman doing yard work outside her home Wednesday discovered a WWII grenade inside a pile of leaves, authorities said.
The woman was raking leaves in her backyard when she picked up a bundle of leaves and found the grenade, said Orlando Fire Department Deputy Chief Kathy Miller.
The arson bomb squad turned the grenade over to the U.S. Army, but no one has been able to determine whether it was a training grenade or a live grenade, Miller said.
Authorities evacuated several nearby homes and closed nearby roads as a precaution while they searched the area.
"The lady was, of course, upset. She just moved into the house," Miller said. "Arson units checked the backyard to make sure there were no other devices and they didn't find anything."
The grenade is believed to be an M-67 army WWII type, Miller said.
Authorities said they have no idea how the grenade ended up in the woman's yard.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A woman doing yard work outside her home Wednesday discovered a WWII grenade inside a pile of leaves, authorities said.
The woman was raking leaves in her backyard when she picked up a bundle of leaves and found the grenade, said Orlando Fire Department Deputy Chief Kathy Miller.
The arson bomb squad turned the grenade over to the U.S. Army, but no one has been able to determine whether it was a training grenade or a live grenade, Miller said.
Authorities evacuated several nearby homes and closed nearby roads as a precaution while they searched the area.
"The lady was, of course, upset. She just moved into the house," Miller said. "Arson units checked the backyard to make sure there were no other devices and they didn't find anything."
The grenade is believed to be an M-67 army WWII type, Miller said.
Authorities said they have no idea how the grenade ended up in the woman's yard.
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2 Brothers Recycle Birthday Card
ABILENE, Texas (AP) - Glendell Smith should be able to recite word-for-word the greeting on one of the birthday cards he expects to get for his 63rd birthday Thursday.
After all, the card has been showing up each year for 42 years.
His brother, Everett, 65, who lived in El Paso and worked as a barber, first sent Glendell the card in 1964. Everett bought it for 15 cents and mailed it for a nickel.
Glendell, who was a student at McMurry University in Abilene at the time, mailed it back for Everett's birthday in February 1965.
"Where have I seen this card before?" Everett recalled asking himself.
The answer was simple.
"Glendell was always kind of a joker," Everett told the Abilene Reporter-News in Thursday's editions.
The brothers have always added messages to the card, which is now laminated. When there was no more space, they added handwritten notes. Now, there are six small note pages attached.
And they've only had one major scare.
ABILENE, Texas (AP) - Glendell Smith should be able to recite word-for-word the greeting on one of the birthday cards he expects to get for his 63rd birthday Thursday.
After all, the card has been showing up each year for 42 years.
His brother, Everett, 65, who lived in El Paso and worked as a barber, first sent Glendell the card in 1964. Everett bought it for 15 cents and mailed it for a nickel.
Glendell, who was a student at McMurry University in Abilene at the time, mailed it back for Everett's birthday in February 1965.
"Where have I seen this card before?" Everett recalled asking himself.
The answer was simple.
"Glendell was always kind of a joker," Everett told the Abilene Reporter-News in Thursday's editions.
The brothers have always added messages to the card, which is now laminated. When there was no more space, they added handwritten notes. Now, there are six small note pages attached.
And they've only had one major scare.
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PepsiCo India fined for condom "found in bottle"
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - An Indian court has fined a PepsiCo India 100,000 rupees (1,247 pounds) after a man complained he had found a condom in a cola bottle, a court official said on Thursday.
PepsiCo India Holdings Ltd., a unit of soft drinks giant PepsiCo Inc., said in a statement it had yet to receive official word of the fine but added that the verdict, delivered on Wednesday, appeared "erroneous" and that it would appeal.
Delhi resident Sudesh Sharma said he fell ill after drinking a bottle of Pepsi in which he later found dirt and some solid particles. The condom was found in a second bottle he bought, the court order said.
Describing the case as "rare", the court -- at the end of a three-year hearing -- fined Pepsi and asked it to pay 20,000 rupees to Sharma for "physical illness and mental shock".
During the hearing, Pepsi told the court it had discovered many cases of spurious drinks being sold under its brand and police had conducted about 35 raids in the capital against fake soft-drink manufacturers over the past four years.
"We are constantly combatting jointly with the industry and the police the menace of spurious products in the market," the company said in a statement.
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - An Indian court has fined a PepsiCo India 100,000 rupees (1,247 pounds) after a man complained he had found a condom in a cola bottle, a court official said on Thursday.
PepsiCo India Holdings Ltd., a unit of soft drinks giant PepsiCo Inc., said in a statement it had yet to receive official word of the fine but added that the verdict, delivered on Wednesday, appeared "erroneous" and that it would appeal.
Delhi resident Sudesh Sharma said he fell ill after drinking a bottle of Pepsi in which he later found dirt and some solid particles. The condom was found in a second bottle he bought, the court order said.
Describing the case as "rare", the court -- at the end of a three-year hearing -- fined Pepsi and asked it to pay 20,000 rupees to Sharma for "physical illness and mental shock".
During the hearing, Pepsi told the court it had discovered many cases of spurious drinks being sold under its brand and police had conducted about 35 raids in the capital against fake soft-drink manufacturers over the past four years.
"We are constantly combatting jointly with the industry and the police the menace of spurious products in the market," the company said in a statement.
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Seal pups beat kids in battle over beach
By Sarah Tippit
LA JOLLA, California (Reuters) - If the stench and bacteria from feces and birth byproducts at a San Diego seal pupping beach has not kept the people away, then officials hope a rope just might.
A school of about 200 harbor seals has emerged victorious in the battle between those who want to protect one of California's top seal-spotting places and those who cherish the "Children's Pool," a cove built 70 years ago to give tots a safe place to swim.
The decade-long feud took a new turn this week after San Diego officials roped off a prime stretch of the La Jolla shoreline to keep people from disturbing the harbor seals who have taken up residence there.
Any move, even a walk across the sand or a seagull in flight, can spook the skittish animals to flee into the ocean and abandon their newborn babies on the shore, thus violating federal marine mammal protection laws.
Moreover, seals need adequate sun and sand time in order to maintain good health, said Joe Cordaro, wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
Cordaro's office urged the city to act after receiving an increase in complaints that angry residents were harassing the marine mammals during their breeding process.
The council voted last week 7-1 to erect the barrier each year from January 1 through May 1, which is considered to be the end of pupping season.
Federal officials have also installed 24-hour surveillance cameras in the cove to watch for people deliberately swimming, kayaking or sunbathing in the area.
'NOT DELICATE CREATURES'
Yet many residents who showed up this week in defiance of the rope said they were undeterred.
"My family has been here since 1915, my children were raised here and we want to be able to swim, it's the only place around with a lifeguard station and bathrooms," said Don Perry who says he visits the beach every day as an act of protest. "These animals are not the delicate creatures they are made out to be."
Meanwhile, a steady stream of tourists and environmental activists clusters above and around the roped area, unfazed by the stench, ogling the seals, calling out to the babies and taking pictures.
"Aren't they cute?" said Andrea Hahn, a member of "Rake the Line," a group of volunteers who come to the Pacific beach to educate the public and monitor those who would defy the barricade.
"There are plenty of other beaches where they can go," she said. "I wish they would leave the seals alone!"
The cove has been a popular La Jolla spot since it was financed in the early 1930s by newspaper heiress Ellen Browning Scripps.
Nobody knows how or why the animals began flocking to the shore in the late 1990s but currently about 200 seals live there. It's one of the few spots in the state where seals are visible to the public, Cordaro said.
Yet they bring with them dangerous and malodorous bacteria. The rope barrier is also meant as a warning to stay away from seal fecal matter and birth byproducts, officials said.
Last October a California Superior Court judge ordered the city to dredge and clean up the beach but the decision has been tied up in litigation and a foul fishy stench remains.
San Diego Council president Scott Peters was alone on the council to vote against putting up the rope barrier, saying he did not feel there was evidence of seal harassment to justify blocking access to the beach for four months.
"The issue isn't so much that people can't get along with seals, it's that people can't get along with people," Peters said.
By Sarah Tippit
LA JOLLA, California (Reuters) - If the stench and bacteria from feces and birth byproducts at a San Diego seal pupping beach has not kept the people away, then officials hope a rope just might.
A school of about 200 harbor seals has emerged victorious in the battle between those who want to protect one of California's top seal-spotting places and those who cherish the "Children's Pool," a cove built 70 years ago to give tots a safe place to swim.
The decade-long feud took a new turn this week after San Diego officials roped off a prime stretch of the La Jolla shoreline to keep people from disturbing the harbor seals who have taken up residence there.
Any move, even a walk across the sand or a seagull in flight, can spook the skittish animals to flee into the ocean and abandon their newborn babies on the shore, thus violating federal marine mammal protection laws.
Moreover, seals need adequate sun and sand time in order to maintain good health, said Joe Cordaro, wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
Cordaro's office urged the city to act after receiving an increase in complaints that angry residents were harassing the marine mammals during their breeding process.
The council voted last week 7-1 to erect the barrier each year from January 1 through May 1, which is considered to be the end of pupping season.
Federal officials have also installed 24-hour surveillance cameras in the cove to watch for people deliberately swimming, kayaking or sunbathing in the area.
'NOT DELICATE CREATURES'
Yet many residents who showed up this week in defiance of the rope said they were undeterred.
"My family has been here since 1915, my children were raised here and we want to be able to swim, it's the only place around with a lifeguard station and bathrooms," said Don Perry who says he visits the beach every day as an act of protest. "These animals are not the delicate creatures they are made out to be."
Meanwhile, a steady stream of tourists and environmental activists clusters above and around the roped area, unfazed by the stench, ogling the seals, calling out to the babies and taking pictures.
"Aren't they cute?" said Andrea Hahn, a member of "Rake the Line," a group of volunteers who come to the Pacific beach to educate the public and monitor those who would defy the barricade.
"There are plenty of other beaches where they can go," she said. "I wish they would leave the seals alone!"
The cove has been a popular La Jolla spot since it was financed in the early 1930s by newspaper heiress Ellen Browning Scripps.
Nobody knows how or why the animals began flocking to the shore in the late 1990s but currently about 200 seals live there. It's one of the few spots in the state where seals are visible to the public, Cordaro said.
Yet they bring with them dangerous and malodorous bacteria. The rope barrier is also meant as a warning to stay away from seal fecal matter and birth byproducts, officials said.
Last October a California Superior Court judge ordered the city to dredge and clean up the beach but the decision has been tied up in litigation and a foul fishy stench remains.
San Diego Council president Scott Peters was alone on the council to vote against putting up the rope barrier, saying he did not feel there was evidence of seal harassment to justify blocking access to the beach for four months.
"The issue isn't so much that people can't get along with seals, it's that people can't get along with people," Peters said.
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Immigrant protest may leave New Yorkers hungry
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anybody who's eaten at one of New York's many big-name restaurants may like to think the food was lovingly prepared by a celebrity chef. The reality is it was more likely made by a poorly-paid Mexican immigrant.
If all the city's immigrants walk off the job in a nationwide protest called for Monday against proposals to crack down on illegal immigration, many New Yorkers will go hungry, or at least be forced to eat at home for a change.
Anthony Bourdain, author of "Kitchen Confidential" and executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, said immigrant workers are an often invisible presence in New York restaurants.
"I really think there's a resistance to having a mestizo-looking guy walking around the dining room in a French restaurant," said Bourdain, whose own chef de cuisine, is a naturalised Mexican.
"Every time you read a restaurant review they always say 'The chef has a sure hand with the spices.' If the chef's name is widely known, the chances are it's really some Mexican guy who has a sure hand with the spices," Bourdain said.
Sean Meade, assistant manager of Colours, an upscale Manhattan restaurant cooperatively-owned by a group of immigrant workers whose colleagues were killed in a top floor restaurant in the attack on the World Trade Centre, said immigrants frequently climb the ladder from dishwasher to busboy to cook.
"They do a lot of the work that many American citizens do not want to do because they think it's beneath them, they fill that void," said Meade.
DOING THE DIRTY WORK
It was unclear how many people would respond to the protest call. It was prompted by a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December making it a felony to be in the country illegally and proposing a fence along parts of the Mexican border.
While many immigrants are working legally, a significant number are not, according to managers interviewed by Reuters at several eateries. Most asked not to be identified to avoid unwanted attention from immigration authorities.
The manager of a diner in Inwood at the northern tip of Manhattan said the industry would fall apart without illegal immigrants. "It would be a disaster," he said.
"These people work hard, they will do whatever, they sweep the floors, wash the dishes. If they go away you would have to pay Americans top dollar, and the next thing you know, a hamburger would cost $5."
The Restaurant Opportunities Centre of New York which promotes workers' rights says 70 percent of the New York food workforce of 165,000 is foreign-born, and up to 40 percent of are undocumented. Workers of Chinese background are the largest group, with many Latin Americans, Arabs, Africans and Afro-Carribeans, said the centre's director Saru Jayaraman.
The U.S. food services industry employs 1.6 million foreign-born workers, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Julee Resendez, the beverage director of Colours, likened today's immigrant experience to that of her great-grandparents who came from Mexico to work in America's cotton fields.
"Immigrants are the backbone of this country. They do the dirty work that others don't necessarily want to do."
Bourdain said immigrants were often more committed to a job than their American-born counterparts.
"If you're a white kid from a culinary school who's thrown into a busy New York in a kitchen, chances are your chef hands you over to Hector who's been there five, six, seven years, and that's who takes you under his wing," he said.
While celebrity chefs have made the industry glamorous, the bulk of the workforce has always been immigrants, he said, just like in Paris in the 1920s when eastern Europeans and other refugees staffed the most prestigious restaurants.
"Now with this added prestige, parents cheerfully send their kids off to cooking schools and then the kids get out of school and are looking to do six-month apprenticeships at one restaurant after another," Bourdain said.
"It was always a moving workforce who change jobs quickly, except for the Latinos who tend to come in and stay put."
(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney and Matthew Robinson)
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anybody who's eaten at one of New York's many big-name restaurants may like to think the food was lovingly prepared by a celebrity chef. The reality is it was more likely made by a poorly-paid Mexican immigrant.
If all the city's immigrants walk off the job in a nationwide protest called for Monday against proposals to crack down on illegal immigration, many New Yorkers will go hungry, or at least be forced to eat at home for a change.
Anthony Bourdain, author of "Kitchen Confidential" and executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, said immigrant workers are an often invisible presence in New York restaurants.
"I really think there's a resistance to having a mestizo-looking guy walking around the dining room in a French restaurant," said Bourdain, whose own chef de cuisine, is a naturalised Mexican.
"Every time you read a restaurant review they always say 'The chef has a sure hand with the spices.' If the chef's name is widely known, the chances are it's really some Mexican guy who has a sure hand with the spices," Bourdain said.
Sean Meade, assistant manager of Colours, an upscale Manhattan restaurant cooperatively-owned by a group of immigrant workers whose colleagues were killed in a top floor restaurant in the attack on the World Trade Centre, said immigrants frequently climb the ladder from dishwasher to busboy to cook.
"They do a lot of the work that many American citizens do not want to do because they think it's beneath them, they fill that void," said Meade.
DOING THE DIRTY WORK
It was unclear how many people would respond to the protest call. It was prompted by a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December making it a felony to be in the country illegally and proposing a fence along parts of the Mexican border.
While many immigrants are working legally, a significant number are not, according to managers interviewed by Reuters at several eateries. Most asked not to be identified to avoid unwanted attention from immigration authorities.
The manager of a diner in Inwood at the northern tip of Manhattan said the industry would fall apart without illegal immigrants. "It would be a disaster," he said.
"These people work hard, they will do whatever, they sweep the floors, wash the dishes. If they go away you would have to pay Americans top dollar, and the next thing you know, a hamburger would cost $5."
The Restaurant Opportunities Centre of New York which promotes workers' rights says 70 percent of the New York food workforce of 165,000 is foreign-born, and up to 40 percent of are undocumented. Workers of Chinese background are the largest group, with many Latin Americans, Arabs, Africans and Afro-Carribeans, said the centre's director Saru Jayaraman.
The U.S. food services industry employs 1.6 million foreign-born workers, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Julee Resendez, the beverage director of Colours, likened today's immigrant experience to that of her great-grandparents who came from Mexico to work in America's cotton fields.
"Immigrants are the backbone of this country. They do the dirty work that others don't necessarily want to do."
Bourdain said immigrants were often more committed to a job than their American-born counterparts.
"If you're a white kid from a culinary school who's thrown into a busy New York in a kitchen, chances are your chef hands you over to Hector who's been there five, six, seven years, and that's who takes you under his wing," he said.
While celebrity chefs have made the industry glamorous, the bulk of the workforce has always been immigrants, he said, just like in Paris in the 1920s when eastern Europeans and other refugees staffed the most prestigious restaurants.
"Now with this added prestige, parents cheerfully send their kids off to cooking schools and then the kids get out of school and are looking to do six-month apprenticeships at one restaurant after another," Bourdain said.
"It was always a moving workforce who change jobs quickly, except for the Latinos who tend to come in and stay put."
(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney and Matthew Robinson)
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rainstorm
TexasStooge wrote:Indian Man Claims He Found Condom in Cola
NEW DELHI (AP) - A consumer court Wednesday ordered soft drink maker PepsiCo to pay financial damages after a customer found a condom inside a bottle, a news report said.
Calling the case "rare" and one that had a serious bearing on public health, the court ordered the company to pay 100,000 rupees ($2,200) to a legal aid fund for consumers, and 20,000 rupees ($450) to the complainant, Press Trust of India reported.
"This case is an eye-opener for others who are engaged in manufacturing soft drinks and are required to maintain the prescribed standards of purity in (the) public interest," the news agency quoted the three-judge panel as saying.
Calls to PepsiCo spokesman Annie Kishen's phone went unanswered Wednesday.
Complainant Sudesh Sharma, a resident of Ujhani village near New Delhi, said he fell sick after consuming one of the two Pepsi bottles he bought in 2003.
Sharma said he found dirt and contaminants in the bottle, and suffered from insomnia, severe headache and stomach pain. He found the condom in the other unopened bottle, PTI reported.
Pepsi denied negligence at the proceedings, saying the bottle was a fake.
100% certain its a fake case
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TexasStooge
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Rounding up roadkill for shuttle safety
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is trying to rid the Kennedy Space Center of vultures after the shuttle struck one of the large birds during lift-off last year on the first flight after the Columbia disaster.
The space center has set up what it calls a "road kill posse" to quickly clear as many carcasses as possible from the 6,000-acre site, in hopes of encouraging the vulture population to relocate by cutting off its food supply.
When shuttle Discovery lifted off the launch pad last July on the first flight since the 2003 Columbia accident, it hit a vulture during its climb to orbit.
Discovery did not suffer any damage that time, from the vulture or from the chunks of foam that fell off its fuel tank during launch. But NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to an accident like the one that killed Columbia's seven astronauts.
"We need everyone's help," the agency wrote in newsletters distributed to the space center's work force last week. "A crew will be sent to quickly remove the carrion before the vultures are attracted to the free meal."
About 500 pounds of animal carcasses have been removed since the program began two weeks ago, the center said.
In addition to picking up dead animals, the space center said it was employing other tactics to discourage the vultures, including testing a sound system that would broadcast loud noises and spraying a noxious chemical. The center said it would also try to trap and remove the birds.
The agency is preparing to resume shuttle launches this summer from the space center, which lies within a wildlife preserve.
Its roads are dotted with the bodies of possums, raccoons, feral pigs, squirrels, birds and other animals fallen victim to traffic. The center is asking anyone who sees dead animals to call a "roadkill" hotline to report the location.
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is trying to rid the Kennedy Space Center of vultures after the shuttle struck one of the large birds during lift-off last year on the first flight after the Columbia disaster.
The space center has set up what it calls a "road kill posse" to quickly clear as many carcasses as possible from the 6,000-acre site, in hopes of encouraging the vulture population to relocate by cutting off its food supply.
When shuttle Discovery lifted off the launch pad last July on the first flight since the 2003 Columbia accident, it hit a vulture during its climb to orbit.
Discovery did not suffer any damage that time, from the vulture or from the chunks of foam that fell off its fuel tank during launch. But NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to an accident like the one that killed Columbia's seven astronauts.
"We need everyone's help," the agency wrote in newsletters distributed to the space center's work force last week. "A crew will be sent to quickly remove the carrion before the vultures are attracted to the free meal."
About 500 pounds of animal carcasses have been removed since the program began two weeks ago, the center said.
In addition to picking up dead animals, the space center said it was employing other tactics to discourage the vultures, including testing a sound system that would broadcast loud noises and spraying a noxious chemical. The center said it would also try to trap and remove the birds.
The agency is preparing to resume shuttle launches this summer from the space center, which lies within a wildlife preserve.
Its roads are dotted with the bodies of possums, raccoons, feral pigs, squirrels, birds and other animals fallen victim to traffic. The center is asking anyone who sees dead animals to call a "roadkill" hotline to report the location.
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TexasStooge
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Goose Befriends Elderly Man With Cancer
FERNAN LAKE, Idaho (AP) - A northern Idaho man diagnosed with terminal cancer says a usually cantankerous goose that befriended him on his walks has helped him live past doctors' predictions.
"I'm 73," Bill Lytle, a two-time state legislator, told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "And I'm not ready to die."
After retiring as project manager for the Bunker Hill Mining company, Lytle and his wife of 52 years, Myrna, moved to Coeur d'Alene, where Bill became one of the founding members of a walking club called the Lake City Striders.
Then last fall his skin turned yellow overnight, and doctors diagnosed pancreatic cancer, giving Lytle only months to live. But Lytle continued his walks, having to cut them down to two miles at a nearby lake, where he met the goose who has inspired him to keep going even when he wasn't feeling well.
"I have to keep walking or I won't make my next December," Lytle said.
The goose, called Mr. Waddles, is a feral domestic goose, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said, offering no explanation for the relationship that has developed between the goose and Lytle. Myrna has thought about that as well.
"I wonder, why would that one goose attach himself to Bill?" she said. "I think he knows he's sick. I think animals can sense that."
The goose, about 30 pounds with a red beak and red feet, approaches Lytle when he calls and rubs its head against his arms. But it snaps at anyone else who gets too close, including Myrna, their daughter, and Bill's hospice aide.
"Sometimes he walks around me, sometimes he walks beside me," Lytle said of the near-daily meetings the two have. "I rub his neck, and the top of his head and down to his back. Every time I came down, he just kept coming out. I think it's pretty nice, that he'd always come to me."
___
Information from: Coeur d'Alene Press
FERNAN LAKE, Idaho (AP) - A northern Idaho man diagnosed with terminal cancer says a usually cantankerous goose that befriended him on his walks has helped him live past doctors' predictions.
"I'm 73," Bill Lytle, a two-time state legislator, told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "And I'm not ready to die."
After retiring as project manager for the Bunker Hill Mining company, Lytle and his wife of 52 years, Myrna, moved to Coeur d'Alene, where Bill became one of the founding members of a walking club called the Lake City Striders.
Then last fall his skin turned yellow overnight, and doctors diagnosed pancreatic cancer, giving Lytle only months to live. But Lytle continued his walks, having to cut them down to two miles at a nearby lake, where he met the goose who has inspired him to keep going even when he wasn't feeling well.
"I have to keep walking or I won't make my next December," Lytle said.
The goose, called Mr. Waddles, is a feral domestic goose, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said, offering no explanation for the relationship that has developed between the goose and Lytle. Myrna has thought about that as well.
"I wonder, why would that one goose attach himself to Bill?" she said. "I think he knows he's sick. I think animals can sense that."
The goose, about 30 pounds with a red beak and red feet, approaches Lytle when he calls and rubs its head against his arms. But it snaps at anyone else who gets too close, including Myrna, their daughter, and Bill's hospice aide.
"Sometimes he walks around me, sometimes he walks beside me," Lytle said of the near-daily meetings the two have. "I rub his neck, and the top of his head and down to his back. Every time I came down, he just kept coming out. I think it's pretty nice, that he'd always come to me."
___
Information from: Coeur d'Alene Press
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TexasStooge
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Dog Blamed for Starting N.H. House Fire
WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) - A fire that damaged a house this week is being blamed on the family dog. Investigators determined that the fire started in the kitchen near the stove.
The dog "appears to have jumped up on or against the stove, where there were remnants of a lunch the family had made and did what dogs do," Deputy Chief Tom Zottie said.
The stove was somehow turned on, Zottie said. It was an older model gas stove, so the knob would only have to be turned to ignite.
No one was home when flames broke out at house on Monday afternoon. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control within two hours and the dog escaped.
___
Information from: WMUR-TV
WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) - A fire that damaged a house this week is being blamed on the family dog. Investigators determined that the fire started in the kitchen near the stove.
The dog "appears to have jumped up on or against the stove, where there were remnants of a lunch the family had made and did what dogs do," Deputy Chief Tom Zottie said.
The stove was somehow turned on, Zottie said. It was an older model gas stove, so the knob would only have to be turned to ignite.
No one was home when flames broke out at house on Monday afternoon. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control within two hours and the dog escaped.
___
Information from: WMUR-TV
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TexasStooge
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Da Vinci judge's secret code revealed
By Peter Graff
LONDON, England (Reuters) - Mystery solved. It was the admiral.
A secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" has been cracked, but far from revealing an ancient conspiracy it is simply an obscure reference to a Royal Navy admiral.
British High Court Justice Peter Smith, who handed down a ruling that Brown had not plagiarized his book, had embedded his own secret message in his judgment by italicizing letters scattered throughout the 71-page document.
In Brown's book, a secret code reveals an ancient conspiracy to hide facts about Jesus Christ.
The judge's own code briefly caused a wave of amused speculation when it was discovered by a lawyer this week, nearly a month after the ruling was handed down.
But the lawyer, Dan Tench, cracked it after a day of puzzling. The judge's code was based on the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical progression discussed in the book.
"After much trial and error, we found a formula which fitted," wrote Tench, who had nothing to do with the Brown case but discovered the italicized letters when studying the ruling.
The judge's secret message was: "Jackie Fisher, who are you? Dreadnought," Tench wrote in the Guardian newspaper.
Judge Smith is known as a navy buff, and Fisher was a Royal Navy admiral who developed the idea for a giant battleship called the HMS Dreadnought in the early 20th century.
Tench wrote that the judge had e-mailed him to confirm he had guessed the secret code right.
The judge later confirmed the existence of the code, and revealed that the Fibonacci sequence was indeed the secret to its solution.
"The message reveals a significant but now overlooked event that occurred virtually 100 years to the day of the start of the trial," he said in a statement.
He said that he is not normally much of a fan of puzzles, such as the Japanese number puzzles that have become an obsession of the British press.
"The preparation of the Code took about 40 minutes and its insertion another 40 minutes or so," he wrote. "I hate crosswords and do not do Sudoku as I do not have the patience."
By Peter Graff
LONDON, England (Reuters) - Mystery solved. It was the admiral.
A secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" has been cracked, but far from revealing an ancient conspiracy it is simply an obscure reference to a Royal Navy admiral.
British High Court Justice Peter Smith, who handed down a ruling that Brown had not plagiarized his book, had embedded his own secret message in his judgment by italicizing letters scattered throughout the 71-page document.
In Brown's book, a secret code reveals an ancient conspiracy to hide facts about Jesus Christ.
The judge's own code briefly caused a wave of amused speculation when it was discovered by a lawyer this week, nearly a month after the ruling was handed down.
But the lawyer, Dan Tench, cracked it after a day of puzzling. The judge's code was based on the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical progression discussed in the book.
"After much trial and error, we found a formula which fitted," wrote Tench, who had nothing to do with the Brown case but discovered the italicized letters when studying the ruling.
The judge's secret message was: "Jackie Fisher, who are you? Dreadnought," Tench wrote in the Guardian newspaper.
Judge Smith is known as a navy buff, and Fisher was a Royal Navy admiral who developed the idea for a giant battleship called the HMS Dreadnought in the early 20th century.
Tench wrote that the judge had e-mailed him to confirm he had guessed the secret code right.
The judge later confirmed the existence of the code, and revealed that the Fibonacci sequence was indeed the secret to its solution.
"The message reveals a significant but now overlooked event that occurred virtually 100 years to the day of the start of the trial," he said in a statement.
He said that he is not normally much of a fan of puzzles, such as the Japanese number puzzles that have become an obsession of the British press.
"The preparation of the Code took about 40 minutes and its insertion another 40 minutes or so," he wrote. "I hate crosswords and do not do Sudoku as I do not have the patience."
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Cantankerous croc bites off more than it can chew
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - A cantankerous crocodile chased a man removing a storm-felled tree from its pen before stealing his chainsaw, shattering a few teeth in the process.
The aptly named Brutus, a 4.5m (15-ft) saltwater crocodile kept as an attraction at the Corroboree Park Tavern in Australia's Northern Territory, took offence at the noise of the chainsaw as the man cut the fallen tree, tavern co-owner Linda Francis told Reuters.
"Freddy had climbed out on to the tree and was removing a limb when the crocodile just erupted from his pool about 20m (60 ft) away and used the tree to launch himself up at Fred and the chainsaw," Francis said on Friday.
"Fred virtually gave him the chainsaw, shoved it at him. It was still going and he took the chainsaw onto the ground and proceeded to smash it and it stalled. The crocodile didn't cut himself, just broke a few teeth."
Brutus then took the chainsaw into his pond and played with it for about an hour, destroying it, before losing interest.
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - A cantankerous crocodile chased a man removing a storm-felled tree from its pen before stealing his chainsaw, shattering a few teeth in the process.
The aptly named Brutus, a 4.5m (15-ft) saltwater crocodile kept as an attraction at the Corroboree Park Tavern in Australia's Northern Territory, took offence at the noise of the chainsaw as the man cut the fallen tree, tavern co-owner Linda Francis told Reuters.
"Freddy had climbed out on to the tree and was removing a limb when the crocodile just erupted from his pool about 20m (60 ft) away and used the tree to launch himself up at Fred and the chainsaw," Francis said on Friday.
"Fred virtually gave him the chainsaw, shoved it at him. It was still going and he took the chainsaw onto the ground and proceeded to smash it and it stalled. The crocodile didn't cut himself, just broke a few teeth."
Brutus then took the chainsaw into his pond and played with it for about an hour, destroying it, before losing interest.
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"Osama bin Laden" still on run in Sierra Leone
FREETOWN (Reuters) - "Osama bin Laden" is still on the run in the jungles of Sierra Leone -- after escaping with some 20 other chimpanzees from a wildlife sanctuary where they killed a local taxi driver on Sunday.
The chimp, named by wardens after the wanted al Qaeda leader, was among a pack of apes which mobbed and mauled four men at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the forested hills outside the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown.
"We hope by the middle of the coming week we will get all of them back to the sanctuary," a Tacugama spokesman told Reuters.
"We have sent warning letters to tribal headmen in villages close to the sanctuary not to allow their children to enter into the forest in search of bush fruits or firewood."
Another of the escaped apes was called Charles Taylor, after the Liberian warlord currently awaiting trial in a cell in a U.N.-backed special court in Freetown, the spokesman said.
The sanctuary, billed as one of Sierra Leone's leading eco-tourism attractions, has remained closed since Sunday's attack in which three American visitors were also injured.
It was the first incident of its kind since the sanctuary was set up in 1995 to give shelter to orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees.
Tacugama is home to nearly 70 apes living in a semi-wild environment in which they have access to fenced enclosures of rainforest as well as large cages where they spend the night.
FREETOWN (Reuters) - "Osama bin Laden" is still on the run in the jungles of Sierra Leone -- after escaping with some 20 other chimpanzees from a wildlife sanctuary where they killed a local taxi driver on Sunday.
The chimp, named by wardens after the wanted al Qaeda leader, was among a pack of apes which mobbed and mauled four men at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the forested hills outside the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown.
"We hope by the middle of the coming week we will get all of them back to the sanctuary," a Tacugama spokesman told Reuters.
"We have sent warning letters to tribal headmen in villages close to the sanctuary not to allow their children to enter into the forest in search of bush fruits or firewood."
Another of the escaped apes was called Charles Taylor, after the Liberian warlord currently awaiting trial in a cell in a U.N.-backed special court in Freetown, the spokesman said.
The sanctuary, billed as one of Sierra Leone's leading eco-tourism attractions, has remained closed since Sunday's attack in which three American visitors were also injured.
It was the first incident of its kind since the sanctuary was set up in 1995 to give shelter to orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees.
Tacugama is home to nearly 70 apes living in a semi-wild environment in which they have access to fenced enclosures of rainforest as well as large cages where they spend the night.
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