Save The Clock Tower!

The identity of a couple caught making love in a clock tower in central Sydney on Friday remains a mystery, but their intimate moment won’t be forgotten after passers-by captured it on video and mobile phone cameras.

The couple was in full view of the busy street below, with people at a bus stop laughing and pointing at the twosome.

German traveler Dirk Gensler, who was staying at an adjacent backpacker hostel, was gobsmacked by what he saw when he peered out his window.

"I was amazed by it, it was the middle of the day and so many people could see it," he said. "I thought it was pretty cool."

Management of UniLodge, the student residential building housing the clock tower directly across the road from a major shopping center, insisted that there was no way the pair could be residents.

UniLodge assistant manager Ravi Krishna said that while the rooftop was accessible to those who live in the building, it was impossible to scale the wall that led to the clock tower.

Zac Brown

"Carrying" On

A paralympic champion who dragged himself through an airport after a budget airline made him check in his wheelchair has received an apology.

Kurt Fearnley had just crawled along a 60-mile jungle track in Papua New Guinea.

But when he arrived at Brisbane airport a few days later, Jetstar— an offshoot of Qantas airlines — asked him to check in his wheelchair. The Australian budget airline offered him its own wheelchair, specially designed for planes, but told Fearnley he would have to be pushed by airline staff.

Fearnley, who won marathon gold in the Beijing and Athens Paralympics, was insulted at being asked to give up his independence.

He said the equivalent for an able-bodied person "would be having your legs tied together, your pants pulled down and be carried or pushed through an airport."

In protest, he rejected the airline's wheelchair and dragged himself through the terminal, in and out of the toilet, and onto the plane.

Jetstar has now issued an apology, saying any embarrassment and hurt was not intentional.

The Chic Side Of Berlin

Budget European airline easyJet has apologized for printing photographs of models posing at Berlin's Holocaust memorial in its in-flight magazine.

The airline was forced to withdraw nearly 300,000 copies of the magazine after protests over its use of the Holocaust memorial in a fashion feature.

"We realized that to hold a fashion shoot in front of the memorial was inappropriate and insensitive, and we didn't wish to offend anyone. It's not quite clear why we didn't spot it earlier," easyJet spokeswoman Samantha Day told the U.K.’s Guardian.

The photographs show models wandering through a field of 2,700 gray slabs at the memorial site.

The airline pulled the images after complaints from Jewish organizations in Europe and from passengers.

Specific locations are identified in the text of the magazine. Under the headline "A Quick Guide to the Chic Side of Berlin," an accompanying article reads:

"Ravaged by war and torn in two by conflicting ideologies, Berlin may not be a picture-perfect jewel … but it's a treasure trove for the culture vulture… no visit would be complete without exploring the testaments to the city's turbulent past, such as … the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust memorial."

Zero Hour - 9am

The pilot known as 'jetman' has crashed into the sea on what was supposed to be a record setting journey.

Yves Rossy had hoped to become the first person to make an intercontinental flight with a jet pack by crossing the Straits of Gibraltar. The Swiss airline pilot and aviation inventor told a news conference: "It's going to be historic" before adding "no one has ever done this before."

Rossy launch his record attempt from the skies above Tangier in Morocco on Wednesday, jumping out of a light airplane from 6,500 feet above the ground. Once airborne he unleashed his wings and fired up his engines.

He was followed throughout the attempt by a team of paramedics in a helicopter, which was challenged to follow him via camera. For several minutes, the team lost sight of the adventurer, eventually locating him in the ocean about halfway through a flight that was expected to last 15 minutes.

A rescuer dropped from the plane into the stormy seas and pulled Rossy to safety, though it was unclear what happened to the wing itself. Designed by Rossy, the wing is made of carbon fiber. With fuel it weighs around 132 pounds, and because of the dangers involved, he wears a flame retardant suit.

Camera Phone - Shown!

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Hey, Man...

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Wild, Wild Wildwood Days

An MTV reality show that depicts Italian-Americans as beach-loving "guidos" is offensive and should be canceled, two national Italian-American organizations say.

UNICO National President Andre DiMino said MTV's "Jersey Shore," which is set to debut on Dec. 3, negatively portrays Italian-Americans as violent, aggressive "buffoons" and relies on blatant stereotyping.

"It continues to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Italian-Americans," DiMino told FoxNews.com. "If you replace Italian-Americans with any other ethnic group, would they use such a pejorative term to promote the show?"

DiMino said he was most insulted by MTV's usage of the term "guido" to promote the show, which follows eight youngsters at a beach house in Seaside Heights, N.J., including cast members "Paulie D," "Jenni J-WOW" and "Vinnie."

"It's really a buffoon-type person who acts crass and vulgar," DiMino said of the slur. "When we saw those promos, it confirmed our fears. Those promotions are a disgrace."

The show has been billed by MTV as the network's newest reality show that "exposes one of the tri-state's most misunderstood species ... the GUIDO."

Sounds perfect....

A Thanksgiving Miracle!

A convicted Mafia boss who got out of jail by faking paralysis and anorexia has been arrested at a restaurant after more than two months on the run, police in Sicily said Tuesday.

Officers arrested Carmelo Di Stefano on Monday as he dined at a seaside village near the Sicilian city of Catania, which he had reached at the wheel of a sports car.

Police official Giovanni Signer said when officers asked him why he was not in a wheelchair, Di Stefano answered: "It's a miracle!"

Di Stefano was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder, associating with the Mafia and drug trafficking, police in Catania said in a statement.

He had been allowed to serve the sentence at his wife's home in the northern city of Bologna after being hospitalized twice for anorexia and post-traumatic paraplegia. Di Stefano, 36, escaped house arrest in September.

Signer said it was now clear that the boss had faked his condition, using "his willpower" to reach the weight of 84 pounds.

Same Old Philly...

An alleged plot to send anti-aircraft missiles and guns to Syria or Iran was thwarted after a key figure was arrested in Philadelphia, the FBI said in documents released Monday.

Dani Nemr Tarraf was detained Saturday on charges of conspiracy to acquire a missile system designed to destroy aircraft and conspiracy to possess machine guns.

The FBI said the plot began as a scheme to smuggle stolen electronics — including video games, cell phones and laptops — and evolved into an effort by Tarraf to obtain weapons that could be shipped to Syria or Iran for what he called "the Resistance."

He was after missiles that could "take down an F-16," the affidavit says.

The affidavit alleges that Tarraf paid a $20,000 cash deposit to the agent in July for machine guns and shoulder-fired Stinger missiles. The documents say Tarraf's dealings with the undercover officer date back to June 2007.

Last week, authorities say, he traveled to Philadelphia to inspect his purchases.

-------------------------------------------

A Philadelphia man admitted he tried to extort money from New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin by mailing letters in which he threatened his family.

Herbert Alex Simpson, 30, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sending threatening communications to Coughlin and one of Simpson's former employers, the Department of Justice said.

Simpson pretended to be other people in the letters, telling Coughlin that his "life would be a living hell by doing something to [his] family," according to the DOJ.

In correspondence to his ex-boss, Simpson threatened to kill him and his family.

Simpson faces up to 10 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines when he's sentenced Feb. 26, the Justice Department said.

Nobody Knows The Trouble I See....

The troubles of the San Francisco Bay area's transit police went viral again as video hit the Internet showing what some claim was another use of excessive force.

A cell phone video showing the violent arrest of a mentally ill passenger accused of being disruptive on a commuter train came less than a year after footage of an officer fatally shooting an unarmed man incited riots in the region.

The latest video shows an unidentified officer pulling Michael Gibson, 37, of San Leandro from a train stopped at the West Oakland station. The officer pushes Gibson toward a concrete wall with thick glass windows, causing the glass to shatter and rain onto both men.

The officer is on paid leave after sustaining a concussion and cuts that required stitches. Gibson suffered minor cuts and is in custody on suspicion of battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Police said Gibson had been arrested earlier in the day outside a mall for investigation of kicking an 82-year-old man on a bus. Gibson was given a misdemeanor citation for assault and battery and later released, Daly City police Sgt. David Mackriss said.

Gibson was arrested again Saturday night after BART police say they received complaints that he had been yelling racial slurs and challenging other train passengers to fight.

Lisa Gibson said her younger brother has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and didn't need to be handled so aggressively by the officer. "He was snatched up and thrown into that thick glass window," she said Monday. "There's no way that officer was just trying to put him in handcuffs."

Sacrifice

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.

A Nepalese minister said it was the largest sacrificial slaughter of animals in the world.

Animal rights groups and activists including the actress Brigitte Bardot have condemned the event, which takes place every five years in the Nepalese village of Bariyarpur, Sky News reported.

But Nepal's government says it will continue with the "centuries-old tradition" and will deploy armed police to keep the peace, Sky News reported.

The Boss

Attack Of The 'Roo

Chris Rickard, 49, of Arthurs Creek, is being assessed by Austin Hospital surgeons after being mauled by the nearly 5-foot kangaroo at 9 a.m. AEDT. He only managed to end the attack when he elbowed the kangaroo in the throat as it tried to hold him under water.

By then he had already suffered a deep gash across his abdomen as the kangaroo tried to disembowel him with its hind legs, as well as a deep gash across his forehead and further cuts and scratches across his chest.

Speaking from the hospital's emergency department, Mr Rickard said he was walking his blue heeler dog Rocky at the back of his property about a quarter mile from his home when they woke the kangaroo which had been sleeping in long grass near the dam.

The startled roo jumped into the dam, and Rocky followed. The roo then grabbed the dog with its front paws and held it under water for about 20 seconds until Mr Rickard arrived.

"I thought I might take a hit or two dragging the dog out from under his grip, but I didn't expect him to actually attack me,'' Mr Rickard said.

"It was a shock at the start because it was a kangaroo, about 5 feet high, they don't go around killing people. Then all of a sudden I realised the first hit gave me opened up a wide gash above my eye and blinded me. I was flailing away underwater carrying a dog with a kangaroo ripping into me."

Hitler & The Moose

Hitler:
A German newspaper is reporting that Adolf Hitler's original Mercedes has been sold to an unidentified Russian billionaire for several million euros.

Express daily wrote Monday that a middleman for the billionaire approached Duesseldorf-based vintage car dealer Michael Froehlich and asked him to track down the dictator's dark-blue 770 K model.

"I was really torn," Froehlich told Express. "After all this was about the car of a horrible mass murderer."

Nonetheless, Froehlich told Express he tracked down the car in Germany.

The paper said the billionaire flew in by private jet and bought it from the private owner for between euro4 million to euro10 million ($6 million to $15 million).

The Moose:
Remnants of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, in the form of his brain and blood, were to be offered up to the highest bidder on eBay, the Times of London reported.

Alessandra Mussolini, the far-right Italian politician and granddaughter of the Fascist dictator, told Italian police that the preserved remains of the body were stolen from a hospital in Milan where Mussolini's autopsy was conducted. The Italian leader, once known as "il Duce," was killed at the end of World War II.

"I was advised this morning that pieces of my grandfather's brain and some of his blood were being sold on eBay for 15,000 euros," Mussolini was quoted by the Telegraph. "This is very serious, these are the kinds of things we have to guard against."

The items were initially offered on the site for $22,290, but eBay released a statement saying that the auction had been withdrawn shortly after it appeared. eBay said the offer violated its rules which forbid the sale of "any human organic material."

Danger!

A national study ranks the New Jersey city of Camden as the nation's most dangerous city in 2008.

The annual rankings from CQ Press are based on FBI-compiled crime data and population figures. Some criminologists say the methodology is unfair.

Camden is no stranger to the top of the list. It was the most dangerous city for 2003 and 2004 and is consistently in the top 10. The bad ranking comes during a year when the number of murders has dropped amid major changes to the police department.

The study found Camden had more than 2,300 violent crimes for every 10,000 residents last year.

St. Louis, Oakland, Calif., Detroit and Flint, Mich., round out the top five. The safest city with more than 75,000 residents was Colonie, N.Y.

Camera Phone - Shown!

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Driving WITH Daisy...

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The Czar Of The Telestrator

Mike Fratello

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Fratello

"Kick A Ginger Day"

Authorities say a 12-year-old boy assaulted by a group of middle school classmates in Southern California may have been targeted after an Internet posting urged students to beat up redheads.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Richard Erickson says the boy, who is redheaded, was kicked and hit in two incidents Friday at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas. As many as 14 students participated in the attacks.

Erickson says the attackers may have been motivated by a Facebook message announcing that Friday was "Kick a Ginger Day." The posting may have been inspired by an episode of the television show "South Park."

The boy was not seriously hurt. Erickson says there may be other victims.

A Virtual Disaster

A man who calls himself SAL9000 has married his virtual girlfriend with a public reception, MyFoxDFW.com reported.

The man reportedly fell in love with a virtual girl named Nene Anegasaki and plans to hold a public wedding reception in Tokyo.

Since the girl doesn't really exist, SAL9000 reportedly took his Nintendo DS to Guam for a legal ceremony and honeymoon, and will livecast the upcoming wedding reception online, MyFoxDFW.com reported.

SAL9000 met his "bride" on the video game Love Plus, which requires players to take out the virtual girl on dates, buy her gifts and make their girlfriends happy like they would in real life.

The player can increase their abilities by studying, working out and solving problems of their virtual girlfriend, but if they fail to make their girlfriend happy, the game will restart after 100 days.

Leftover Noodles

Police in Marion, Iowa, and postal authorities are investigating the case of a mail carrier who was allegedly found drunk inside a residence while on the job.

Police said the postal worker, 46, was charged with public intoxication Nov. 3 after she was found sitting on the kitchen floor of 95-year-old woman's house, eating leftover noodles from her refrigerator.

Police Lt. Steve Etzel said Tuesday that the woman apparently entered the home through an unlocked front door. He said she was in uniform and had mail and a mail-carrying bag with her.

The woman, a 17-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service, was taken to the Linn County Jail. Marion Postmaster Rick Leyendecker said the woman is currently on unpaid leave.

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Mr. Taco. - Mr. Black Taco.

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The Squeegee Bandit

A man accused of using a squeegee to hit another man during a fight over who was first in line at a gas pump was due in court on charges. The man, Hector Chavez, 21, was to be arraigned Friday in Faulkner County Circuit Court on a second-degree battery charge.

A Conway police report said the victim told officers that he was waiting in line at a gas pump when Chavez cut in front of him. The victim, who was not identified, said he confronted Chavez with the squeegee and swung at him before Chavez took the squeegee and began beating him with it.

Christmas Presents

Customs officials say they got a surprise when they found 316,000 glass bongs disguised as Christmas ornaments at the Los Angeles harbor.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday that agents found the highly decorated drug pipes in 860 boxes shipped from China. The cargo, estimated to be worth more than $2.6 million, had been described as glass figures and Christmas ornaments.

The bongs were seized Tuesday at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex.

Customs spokeswoman Cristina Gamez says the importer remains under investigation and there have been no arrests.

Stand Up!

When an ambulance brought Daniel Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his knee in March, paramedics warned the then 550-pound man he probably wouldn't be able to get up from his recliner if they put him there, his wife said.

Webb told them to leave him there anyway. He would sit in that recliner, slowly dying, for the next eight months. Finally, paramedics were called back to his Greenwood home on Wednesday because he was in a lot of pain.

Webb's body was physically stuck to the power recliner and firefighters had to cut him from the chair to take him to the hospital. He died a few hours later, his body covered with sores and a "very bad odor," according to a police report.

Webb, 33, didn't ask for help for all those months, because he was ashamed and didn't have health insurance, said his wife, Ada. He slept and used the bathroom in his chair and she cleaned it every day. The former preacher would post sermons online from the chair, and it wasn't long before he decided he was ready to go home to the Lord, she said.

The hospital told Daniel Webb's wife he died from a heart attack, she said. The coroner's office isn't investigating the death and referred all questions to Greenwood County deputies, who sent their report, but didn't respond to a phone message.

Webb died on the couple's second anniversary. They met four years ago on MySpace, and Ada Webb said she didn't see a man who weighed more than 500 pounds, but instead saw a guy who loved the Lord and had a big heart.

Shredding Wishes

Thousands of starry-eyed children all over the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season, but they will not likely get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Postal Service officials said they are tightening rules in such programs nationwide after a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to make changes to the program.

People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.

Operations manager Paul Brown believes his business will be affected under changes to the volunteer Santa letter program because tens of thousands of letters are addressed to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska.

Those letters will still be forwarded to volunteers but it's unclear yet if anything will be done with them. Those intercepted by the postal service will probably eventually be shredded.

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It's my sister, the mascot.

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iPod Humor

I was in the restaurant yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to pass gas. The music was really, really loud, so I timed my gas with the beat of the music.

After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my coffee, and noticed that everybody was staring at me....

Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod.

See This...?

(discarded appendix)

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Neeren no longer has one. Wish him well...

Thanks, Joe?

The Drunken Master

Seattle police say a man who thought he was a ninja was impaled on a metal fence when he tried to leap over it.

An officer who was looking for an assault victim nearby Monday night heard the man screaming for help.

Police supported him to prevent further injuries until medics arrived and took him to a hospital, where he was in serious condition in intensive care on Tuesday.

Police spokeswoman Renee Witt wrote in a department Web site posting that officers thought the man might have been involved in the reported assault, but he insisted he was just a ninja trying to clear a 4- to 5-foot-tall fence.

Witt says the man was "overconfident in his abilities," and that alcohol likely played a role.

The Cow Is Doing Well...

A South Carolina woman who heard a giant splash in her backyard discovered a 650-pound cow had fallen into her swimming pool.

WSPA-TV reports that the cow fell into Kathy Wydareny's covered pool on Monday night. The Anderson resident says the cow belonged to her neighbor.

Wydareny was startled by a "giant whoosh" and took a flashlight out to investigate. She called 911 after spotting the cow.

It took five men from the county rescue team to free the cow using a sling.

Wydareny believes the cow got loose and just kept walking, thinking the pool cover was solid ground.

The cow is doing well. Wydareny hopes her homeowner's insurance will cover the damage to her pool.

More Cow!

Lead On!

A Michigan man has won the world Rock Paper Scissors championship in Toronto. Tim Conrad clinched the title after five hours of play and nine matches at the Steam Whistle Brewery on Saturday night.

Facing off against his best friend in the first all-American final in championship history, Conrad beat Tom Butkin with paper covering rock.

Organizers say Conrad dressed as Captain America during the competition to honor his home country.

Conrad takes home $7,000 in prize money.

The championship was organized by the World RPS Society.

A Loss For Words...

What word sums up 2009? How about unfriend?

That's the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year. It means to remove someone as a friend on a social networking Web site such as Facebook.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year.

Oxford lexicographer Christine Lindberg says unfriend has "real lex appeal."

Finalists for 2009 also included netbook, which is a small laptop, and sexting, which is sending sexually explicit texts and pictures by cell phone.

Truckin'

Live strippers on the back of a truck is too much, even for Sin City.

A Las Vegas strip club has agreed to stop an advertising promotion that involved hauling bikini-clad exotic dancers around in a truck with clear plastic sides.

Larry Beard, marketing director of Deja Vu Showgirls, said Friday that he's taking his lawyer's advice and parking the truck. "We're going to respect the opinion of the folks that are against it," Beard told The Associated Press. "We're going to be good citizens and take it off the street."

"The girls are wearing more than the girls at the swimming pool wear," Beard said this week. "Even though they're not stripping and taking their clothes off I think people are offended because of the idea that they do."

The truck rolled for 13 nights along the Las Vegas Strip from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., trying to lure customers to the club. Three sides had windows that weren't tinted, offering views of the strippers dancing around a stripper pole.

The tactic worked, with business booming since the truck started going out, Beard said.

"It's clearly a distraction," Sisolak told the AP. "Somebody's going to turn their head to look at some girl flipping upside-down and spinning on a pole, and take their eyes off the road and could swerve and pop up the sidewalk and plow into a bunch of tourists that are walking along."

Sisolak said he plans to try to close a loophole in local laws regulating mobile billboards.

Fine With It...

A high school librarian in Phoenix says a former student at the school returned two overdue books checked out 51 years ago along with a $1,000 money order to cover the fines. Camelback High School librarian Georgette Bordine said the two Audubon Society books checked out in 1959 and the money order were sent by someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

Bordine said the letter explained that the borrower's family moved to another state and the books were mistakenly packed.

The letter said the money order was to cover fines of 2 cents per day for each book. That would total about $745. The letter says the extra money was added in case the rates had changed.

Bordine said the money will buy more books, and the overdue books will be returned to the shelves.

Regulators!!

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Bishop's Collar - Pork.

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Biscuit Factory

A woman with a medical condition that gives her 300 orgasms a day has found the man of her dreams after she wore out a string of boyfriends.

Michelle Thompson, who suffers from persistent sexual arousal syndrome, thought she was just too demanding for men and would never find the man of her dreams.

But she has been with her neighbor Andrew Carr, 32, for the past six months and he's as keen for sexual intercourse as she is. They make love 10 times a day.

"Andrew has changed my life. I'm no longer looking for a cure for my orgasms - I've found it," Michelle told The News of the World newspaper in the U.K. "Now I have a huge grin on my face all the time, and it's not just because of the orgasms."

Women who suffer from persistent sexual arousal syndrome experience spontaneous orgasms throughout the day, which may or may not accompany sexual activity. Many women describe the condition as debilitating and embarrassing.

Michelle's rare condition means she always craves sex and can climax at any time. She even had to quit a job in a biscuit factory because the machines kept setting her off.

Whiskey Tango

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.

Whyte & Mackay, the drinks group that now owns McKinlay and Co., has asked for a sample of the 100-year-old scotch for a series of tests that could decide whether to relaunch the now-defunct Scotch.

Workers from New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust will use special drills to reach the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

Al Fastier, who will lead the expedition in January, said restoration workers found the crates of whiskey under the hut's floorboards in 2006. At the time, the crates and bottles were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

The New Zealanders have agreed to try to retrieve some bottles, although the rest must stay under conservation guidelines agreed by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's master blender, said the Shackleton expedition's whiskey could still be drinkable and taste exactly as it did 100 years ago.

If he can get a sample, he intends to replicate the old Scotch and put McKinlay whiskey back on sale.

"I really hope we can get some back here," he was quoted as telling London's Telegraph newspaper. "It's been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born.”

Evil Genius?

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.

"I'm going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I'll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday with family members of five Cubans convicted of spying in the United States.

Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns, commonly known as cloud seeding, although the effectiveness of such techniques is disputed.

Firing silver iodine at clouds is one common method. China uses rockets loaded with the chemical to spur rainfall in arid regions. Chavez did not say what technology the Cubans will use.

Venezuela has suffered water and electricity shortages this month after a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon led to critically low water levels at several reservoirs in the oil-exporting nation.

Venezuela produces much of its electricity from hydroelectric projects, including the giant El Guri dam close to the Orinoco.

Love - (It Comes In Many Ways...)

It's A Trap!

A British woman who trapped her pedophile husband by posing as a teenage girl on the internet has been praised by a children's charity, Sky News reported.

David Anthony Roberts, 69, asked a girl he believed to be aged 14 to have sex with him, not realizing he was having an online conversation with his wife Cheryl.

Cheryl Roberts was so shocked she called in the police and The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who discovered indecent images of children on his computer.

Her husband admitted to police he would have been prepared to have sex with the 14-year-old from the internet chatroom if she had agreed to meet up with him.

David Roberts, of Bridgend, south Wales, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday and ordered to attend a program for sex offenders as part of a three-year community order.

He must also register as a sex offender for five years and is banned indefinitely from having contact in person or online with children under the age of 18.

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Rough Day?

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Shoo!

An 11-year-old Idaho boy fatally shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave.

The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. He says he couldn't shoo the animal away, so he went and got a gun and shot it.

Doug Petersen, a conservation officer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, says the boy and his family probably won't be in any trouble, because the agency had received multiple complaints about a black bear in the area. The bear had been hanging around a transfer station and getting into garbage cans and bird feeders.

Petersen says Fish and Game doesn't usually issue citations in situations where the bear had been a problem around humans. The agency has issued the family a permit to keep the bear's carcass.

Late Night Showers

The Leonid meteors are debris shed into space by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings through the inner solar system at intervals of 33.25 years, looping around the sun then heading back into the outskirts of the solar system. With each visit the comet leaves behind a trail of dust in its wake.

This year, the Leonids — set to peak early Tuesday morning, Nov. 17 — should offer a better-than-average display.

Plenty of the comet's old dusty trails litter the mid-November part of Earth's orbit and the Earth glides through this debris zone every year. But predicting exactly what's out there is tricky.

The comet has since receded out to some 1.8 billion miles from the sun, having taken most of those dense filaments of dust with it. That's why this year, during the predawn hours of Nov. 17, when the Leonids traditionally should be at their most numerous, we now expect to see no more than 10 meteors per hour, even with the promise of this year's excellent viewing conditions thanks to a New moon.

North Americans – especially those living near and along the Atlantic Seaboard – will be able to watch for Leonids from after 1 a.m. local time right on until the first light of dawn, which comes soon after 5 a.m. local time.

Those in the eastern U.S. and Canada are especially favored because Leo will be high in the southeast sky between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. EST, just before Earth is expected to exit the meteor cloud. For the West Coast, this translates to 12:30 to 2:30 a.m. PST, when Leo is much lower down in the eastern sky.

Oh, Word?

Jeter?

Yankees captain and 2009 World Series Champion Derek Jeter trades in his pinstripes for a blonde wig and schlubby attire to film a scene in the upcoming film "The Other Guys," which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.

The Bronx Bomber, who plays himself in the movie, was snapped on set in Brooklyn's Coney Island attempting to go incognito.

Titan (A Magical Dog)

Guinness World Records has officially named Titan, an ailing 4-year-old white Great Dane from San Diego, as the world's tallest dog.

Titan is blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks, owner Diana Taylor said.

Great Danes are built like giraffes one way and submarines the other, Taylor said, so they have spine issues. Titan is doing well on his treatments and medication. He hasn't had a seizure in a year.

He is a gentle soul who befriends everyone during his daily walks on the beach and is often mistaken by young children for a horse or cow, Taylor said.

Titan's official height, as measured by a veterinarian, is 42.25 inches from floor to shoulder. You could add eight inches if official measurements included the head, Guinness spokesman Stuart Claxton said.

Titan weighs 190 pounds and doesn't stand on his hind legs because it isn't good for him. If he did, Taylor figures he would stand 80 or 82 inches tall.

Taylor was living in Atlanta when she adopted Titan as a puppy from the Middle Tennessee Great Dane Rescue. When he could see out of one eye, she taught him sign language. As he went blind, they learned to communicate by touch.

"I stay close," she said, noting he still seems to sniff out every friendly face.

"Titan is magical," she added. "He's low-key, calm and has a wonderful demeanor about him. He gets along with all dogs, even the tiny ones ... He's also great to travel with. We've gone across the country twice."

Turning To Stone

A 5-year-old girl from the U.K. must take a daily cocktail of drugs to avoid the cells in her body from turning to crystal, the Daily Mail reported.

Lillie Sutcliffe from Castleford, West Yorkshire in England suffers from a rare condition called cystinosis. The condition causes an amino acid, cystine, to accumulate in various organs of the body including the kidney, eyes, liver, muscles, pancreas, brain and white blood cells. It primarily affects children and without specific treatment, kids with the disease will develop end stage kidney failure at approximately age 9, according to the Cystinosis Research Network.

The condition is so rare, it is estimated that only about 2,000 people worldwide suffer from it, although the numbers are unclear because the conditions is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

Doctors discovered Lillie had cystinosis after scanning her eyes and finding crystals, the Mail reported.

“I had never heard of the condition, so I was a bit shocked to hear what it did,” Lillie’s mom, Laura, told the newspaper. “It means Lillie's body essentially turns to crystal.They just load up inside her. If it wasn't treated she would turn into stone eventually because it attacks all the cells.”

Although the condition can be partially treated, there is no cure.

Smooth Operator

Florida police say a man arrested for repeatedly calling 911 looking for sex claimed it was the only number he could dial after running out of cell phone minutes.

Tampa police said 29-year-old Joshua Basso made sexual comments to the 911 dispatcher and asked if he could come to her house.

Investigators say she hung up, but he called back four more times.

He was arrested about 15 minutes later at his home late Wednesday and charged with making a false 911 call. Basso reportedly told officers that he didn't think he would get in trouble for calling 911.

Tampa jail records show Basso is being held without bond but don't indicate whether he has an attorney. He is listed as unemployed with arrests for theft and other crimes dating back to 2001.