DUBLIN - An Irish hearse driver has been fined for speeding -- while leading a funeral cortege.
Just when you thought the Euros couldn't get any goofier ...
Police ordered undertaker John Carr to pay an 80 euro ($102) fine and gave him two penalty points for driving at 69 km/hr (43 miles/hour) in a 50 km/hr zone.
"Outta my way pencilneck!"
Several other vehicles in the cortege -- on its way to a funeral in County Donegal, northwest Ireland -- were also fined and their drivers threatened with prosecution if they did not pay.
"You guys late for a funeral or something?"
Hundreds of people were caught in the same area during a police crackdown last month, including parents taking their children to school. Ive never heard of a hearse being done for speeding before. I supposed Ill probably have to pay the fine, The Irish Times newspaper quoted Carr as saying. Im not too worried about the points because I intend not to incur any more.
"They'll never catch me next time!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2006 00:00 ||
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ROME - An Italian judge has ruled that a Mafia boss serving a life sentence for murder should be allowed to father a baby through artificial insemination -- and the public health service should pay for it.
Wouldn't it just be cheaper to ...
In a case that is certain to stir controversy, the judge accepted the request by Salvino Madonia, who was convicted for the high-profile 1991 murder of a businessman who had refused to pay an extortion fee to the Mafia. Madonia, 50, is detained in a high-security prison and is not allowed to meet his family, including his 32-year old wife Mariangela, in private.
The judge decided to overcome this problem and guarantee his right to fatherhood, Madonias lawyer Giovanni Anania was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera daily.
Right to fatherhood? Is that in the new EU constitution?
Madonia will not be allowed to leave the prison for the procedure, meaning that an official from the local health service would have to go to collect his semen in jail.
"Luigi, we drew straws and you lost."
It is not the first time an Italian judge has allowed Mafia detainees to have babies through artificial insemination but Madonias case has still raised eyebrows in Roman Catholic Italy, which has one of the strictest laws on fertility treatments.
Corriere said prison officials at the Justice Ministry were opposed to the idea and that Justice Minister Clemente Mastella would likely have to rule on the case.
He's part of the new leftie government, so the odds are he doesn't have any more sense than the judge.
Madonia, who comes from a family of renowned Mafia bosses, got married in jail in 1992. Investigators were baffled when the couples first child was born in 2000, while Madonia was already in detention and was theoretically barred from having any private encounter with his wife.
And it's not like she's going to cheat on him and live.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/08/2006 00:00 ||
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A woman who tried to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain by putting a dead mouse in a bowl of soup was sentenced to a year in jail. Carla Patterson, 38, and her 22-year-old son, Ricky Patterson, sought $500,000 from the chain after claiming they found the rodent in the vegetable soup the woman ordered at a Newport News restaurant on Mother's Day weekend in 2004.
A jury convicted the Pattersons of conspiracy to commit extortion in April. The Pattersons maintained their innocence, but evidence included tests showed the mouse had not been cooked and had not drowned but instead died of a fractured skull. Carla Patterson wept Wednesday as a judge imposed the jail sentence and a $2,500 fine. Defense lawyer Michael Woods said Patterson plans to appeal. Ricky Patterson's sentencing, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed until Sept. 14. He is at Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail in Williamsburg after pleading guilty to forgery in an unrelated check-fraud case.
Nice to see the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Obviously those 'Dysfunctional Family Rules' (from the Opinion page) were studiously avoided in this case...
AN Islamic leader has said "thanks but no thanks" to an offer from Australia's peak Muslim body to reinstate his annual allowance.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) yesterday said it would pay Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali his $40,000 cleric's allowance after earlier withdrawing it and suggesting he contact his local Centrelink office.
In an attempt to quell in-fighting, involving leadership issues arising from the April elections, AFIC yesterday said a "glitch" in the system had been fixed and that Sheikh Hilali would be paid.
But the Egyptian-born Sheikh Hilali, who had been receiving fortnightly payments from AFIC for his role as mufti since 1989, has rejected the offer.
He says while he appreciates the decision, he does not need the salary or sympathy.
"I would like it to be known that for what is left of my life, I have taken the decision to take my stipend from God directly and will not accept a salary from any organisation whether Islamic or otherwise," Sheikh Hilali said.
"I also confirm that I will not be going to Centrelink."
Nevertheless, Sheikh Hilali said he would be prepared to do some work for the group if it was in the best interests of the community.
The leadership tensions which led to the dispute stem from a battle between two ethnic groups to control AFIC.
The mufti is believed to have sided with the rebel board over the new regime.
Sheikh Hilali said some individuals had descended "to such a moral low that has brought disrepute to the Australian Muslim community and created a ruckus in the media".
He called on AFIC to resolve leadership differences through dialogue rather than the courts.
"There is no place in our society for these ethnic groupings that only produce grudges and personal score-setting," he said.
When President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visit Salt Lake City next month for an American Legion national convention, Mayor Rocky Anderson plans a protest - even bigger than the one he spoke at last year.
Critical of Bush on several fronts - from the Iraq war to funding cuts to environmental policies - Anderson expects "tens of thousands" to demonstrate...
Republican Rep. Katherine Harris accused the man she is trying to unseat in her quest for the U.S. Senate of accepting illegal campaign contributions, as she did last year. Harris, a U.S. representative from Longboat Key, received a warm welcome in Osceola County on Thursday, taking shots at her chief opponent, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Harris, who spoke after a brief presentation by candidates for the Osceola County School Board at the Kissimmee Bay Country Club, stuck to habitual campaign topics -- illegal immigration, drilling off the Florida coast and eminent domain. But after a question from a member of the audience about illegal contributions made to her campaign by a defense contractor in 2004, Harris said that she had not known the $32,000 donation was illegal and she has since donated the money to charity. She then upped the political ante by suggesting Nelson had made a similar mistake. "That actually happened in the past, and it happened to Bill Nelson," Harris said. "The difference is that when I did find out, I donated that money to charity. . . . He received some $80,000 the same way and he never did reimburse. So there is a little bit of difference, and I'm happy to draw attention to that." She never identified the money to which she was referring.
Her comments were in response to Nelson's camp, which last month accused Harris of being a "bribe taker." A Nelson spokesman was reprimanded for the comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2006 10:51 ||
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In the hospital for removal of an Ovarian Mass. I don't like her... but hope she's okay.
#2
I don't think she is Senator material.
Is Bill Mc Cullum still running for that seat ?
He is good. I watched a lot of him on CSPAN during the Clinton years. He's smart and conservative.
MULTAN: Jatoi police have arrested three members of a punchayat (village council) that ruled earlier this week that an alleged rapist of an eight-year-old girl must marry his 16-year-old sister to the 65-year-old father of the raped girl. Mukhtar Mais brother reportedly headed the punchayat that consisted of 13 members.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Wait a sec, an old fart like me gets a 16 year old ? Sheeeeat, what's he gunna do with her ?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
DUBLIN - An Irish hearse driver has been fined for speeding -- while leading a funeral cortege.
ROME - An Italian judge has ruled that a Mafia boss serving a life sentence for murder should be allowed to father a baby through artificial insemination -- and the public health service should pay for it.
A woman who tried to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain by putting a dead mouse in a bowl of soup was sentenced to a year in jail. Carla Patterson, 38, and her 22-year-old son, Ricky Patterson, sought $500,000 from the chain after claiming they found the rodent in the vegetable soup the woman ordered at a Newport News restaurant on Mother's Day weekend in 2004.
Republican Rep. 
MULTAN: Jatoi police have arrested three members of a punchayat (village council) that ruled earlier this week that an alleged rapist of an eight-year-old girl must marry his 16-year-old sister to the 65-year-old father of the raped girl. Mukhtar Mais brother reportedly headed the punchayat that consisted of 13 members.
