A Bronx man was shot and killed Thursday during a robbery over his iPhone, the NYPD said Thursday.

Electricity to a village was cut off when a Martin tried to bite through a high voltage cable.

Green-fingered Germans are rejoicing after news spread on Wednesday that an American agave plant is flowering in Bavaria - a rare occurrence in the horticultural world. 

A Berlin sex shop has taken clear-conscience consumerism to an intimate new high, with organic, vegan sex aids.

A German police force that spent €25 million on new sporty cars found that not only was the visibility rubbish for chases - the fancy seats were so narrow the cops could not get in while wearing their guns, truncheons and other equipment. 

Amorphophallus titanum 

= Titan's Root (Titanenwurz)

after 15 years 1st time blossoming and stinking (!) like rotten fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9e8a9_46rY

TORONTO -- An RCAF corporal has been fined $500 for falling asleep while guarding the aircraft of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other government members during a trip to Morocco.

VANCOUVER -- After being flushed out to sea by last year’s massive tsunami and earthquake, a Japanese squid-fishing boat has drifted across the Pacific Ocean and was about 120 nautical miles off British Columbia’s north coast Friday evening.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Japanese+ghost+ship+lost+tsunami+drifts+coast/6351683/story.html#ixzz1q3MboHGj

A tubby thief who tried to steal a new toilet seat was caught when he was spotted by two police officers acting suspiciously in the Sanitary Department of a store in Baden.

Austrian troops who last year spectacularly failed to stop an invasion of storks that forced a military air show into retreat have this year called in a secret weapon – Falcons.

The number of elderly German drivers is rising significantly, as is the accident risk for everyone who uses the country's roads. Experts recommend more consideration from other drivers and say seniors should be given regular tests. But as their constituencies age, lawmakers are resisting tougher regulations. 

(...)Now detectives say that the two men who had been sent inside to clean the oven had actually finished the job and left before returning a second time without informing colleagues. (...)

The German city of Braunschweig has a new benefactor. An anonymous donor has been stuffing envelopes filled with 10,000 euros in cash into the mailboxes of charitable organizations. His latest contribution was an anomaly. A local hospice found the money under its doormat.

MONTREAL – A $30 tongue piercing has cost a Montreal tattoo shop $3,500.

A Court of Quebec judge recently ruled that the owner of a tattoo shop and his employee must pay the father of a 13-year-old girl whose tongue they pierced.

 

The well-known face of Mohammed Atta, one of the lynchpins of the 9/11 attacks, reportedly appeared in a promotion on Facebook selling car insurance Friday.

Police have launched an investigation after officers shot dead a man who was throwing bottles out of the window of his flat in a small town near Frankfurt.

The scale of drug trafficking at Brussels Airport continues to increase. Last year nearly 5,000 pills, 379 kilos of cocaine and 17 kilos of heroin were seized at the Belgian airport.

Sensationalized tabloid the National Enquirer has published a photo on its cover that appears to be Whitney Houston in an open casket at her wake. 

A witchcraft trial is re-opening in Cologne on Monday in the hope that one woman will have her name cleared, centuries after being burned at the stake.

A Turkish newspaper and the Foreigners’ Advisory Council in the German state of Hesse have expressed outrage at a televised Karneval monologue that made several jokes at the expense of Turkish Germans.

A man had to be rescued from the frozen River Elbe in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday after his canoeing trip in sub-zero temperatures turned out not to be such a good idea.

Four young car thieves in the western German state of Saarland notified the police on Sunday night after they stumbled on the corpse of a small baby in the boot of a car they were breaking into.

One of the Netherlands’ most infamous criminals, Willem Holleeder, has been released from prison, the justice ministry has confirmed.

The dismembered, partially cooked corpse of a missing man has been found in a Berlin apartment, where prosecutors believe he was killed after a sex game spiralled out of control.

A state government in Germany intends launching legal proceedings against a Dutch website for publication of an excerpt from Adolf Hitler’s infamous book, Mein Kampf. The Finance Ministry of Bavaria holds the copyright on the book and says website Nieuws-wo2.tk is in violation of copyright laws.

A sadistic pimp not only beat the women he forced into prostitution – he had turned his genitalia into a weapon with metal implants and used it to hurt them further, a court in Frankfurt has heard (...)

Hazel Jones always wondered why she suffered from terrible cramps and heavy periods during puberty. But it wasn't until she turned 18 that she was given her astonishing diagnosis - she had two vaginas.

The businessman who shot dead a prosecutor in court in Bavaria, would have walked out a free man had he not fired a gun at the judge and then turned on the prosecutor (...)

A 23-year-old man from Koekelare in West Flanders has been sentenced to 12 years in gaol for a series of traffic offences.

Actions speak louder than words. Shoplifting Indian style

An Indian woman is able to carry away a case of beer under her skirt. 

Almost unbelievable that she had the legs' power of keeping it aloft.

I rather think she used an assisting gadget.  

A four-year-old in Cologne took it upon himself to leave his home on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. and go alone to his kindergarten. 

Other police stations have offered the lure of free TVs to nab suspects, but British police appealed to suspects' thirsty sides, offering free beer ...

01/10/11 - A humpback whale has been spotted off the Belgian coast. It is assumed that the images were recorded close to the Thornton area, some 25 kilometres off the Belgian mainland. It's probably a young whale. Adults can grow to a length of 15 metres and a weight of 30 tons. Humpbacks live across the world, but it's very rare to spot them in the North Sea.

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - Two curious tourists wondering why someone left a purse unattended led to the rescue of a woman from the Niagara River about 400 metres from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls Wednesday afternoon.

A pensioner poured inedible soup over a farmer and his tractor for disturbing his siesta.

MONTREAL -- Texting behind the wheel is illegal in Quebec, but texting at the reins of a caleche is apparently a different story.

A Swiss man plans to sue Austrian casino bosses for being denied 43 million Euros after allegedly hitting the jackpot.

€43m = $58.1m (conversion rate of 9/23/2011 

EDMONTON - A city restaurant owner says a set of unique urinals are here to stay, despite a complaint that they are “degrading to women.”

See also:

http://www.pimpettes.de/index.php/2009/07/08/rote-lippen-soll-man-besudeln/

http://www.bathroom-mania.com/en/enhome/enfshome.html

Almost two dozen people were travelling through Austria in a minivan registered for a maximum of five people

A drinks maker has been awarded a trademark for a German 'f-word' obscenity after a two-year legal fight for an alcoholic beverage using the word.

Sweden’s wildlife can be hard to find at the best of times, but luckily, if it's an elk you want to see, a safari park near Stockholm promises to get you so close you might even get a smooch, Oliver Gee discovers...

A 56-year-old Austrian is recovering after plunging down a 300-metre cliff in the Swiss mountains

TORONTO - A life-saving device was turned into a deadly projectile when it became airborne on a highway west of Toronto last week.

Here's a new twist to that old man-bites-dog story.

A GROUP of flatmates eating dinner together had a shock when they found a live frog in their salad.

A Styrian triathlete has been fined nearly 200 Euros for speeding

 (while riding his high tech bike).

The Austrian guy, Niko Alm (35), allegedly devotee of a 'religous' movement, called "Pastafarianism" was successful in convincing the Vienna traffic authority to express his 'belief' by putting on a noodle cullender for a driver's license picture.  

How not to DIY!

A 58 y/o businessman for construction materials forgot to close the sunroof of his 7 y/o Audi A8. After a T-storm downpour, he tried to dry his car, worth about €15k or $22k, with a 2.000 W blow-dryer. Feeling a sudden urge for the bathroom, he left the car unattended for allegedly 10 minutes. 

Result: The Audi went up in flames.    

Panic broke out among 600 people packed into a dark, unventilated metro train stuck in a tunnel for half an hour in Hamburg on Saturday evening, after a fight at a station stopped traffic. .

 

Police say twenty tourists who spent the night in a cable car 100 meters (325 feet) up the Alps in southern Germany, were rescued by helicopter on Saturday.

 

The two-year-old son of an Italian family visiting a church in Spitz was hit by the 200 pound holy water cauldron and was seriously injured.

A disgruntled Alabama church musician allegedly zapped a pastor with a stun gun after the pastor fired him following last Sunday's service.

(report:  WPMI Local 15)

WINNIPEG - A 22-year-old man is charged, accused of firing a sawed-off shotgun after two Winnipeg restaurant employees declined to sell him a cigarette.

An Indian man who went into hospital with stomach pains had to have a hysterectomy when doctors found he had a uterus.

A 79-year-old man from the village of Nindorf in Lower Saxony has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his 72-year-old wife, butchering her and leaving parts of her body on fire by the side of a road...

Officials in Bonn are counting pennies after raiding a woman thought to have hoarded around €40,000 in small-denomination coins she earned looking after public toilets – and failed to declare to the tax office.

The hunt for the man who police say shot and killed two women and seriously injured a man in Berlin on Thursday, has gone nationwide, after authorities admitted they could not find him – and that he was still armed.

Animal rights activists are racing to try to find an escaped cow before hunters do - after Bavarian authorities issued an order to get her dead or alive.

Three Swiss soldiers remain in the hospital, while another was discharged, after an explosives accident during training in the canton of St. Gallen yesterday.

A German court on Thursday awarded more than €3,000 ($4,265) in damages to a child murderer over a threat by police to inflict "unimaginable pain" if he did not reveal his victim's whereabouts.

Fare dodgers in Germany are using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to warn fellow travellers of the presence of public transport inspectors on buses and trains.

This year, female visitors at Oktoberfest will be offered green armbands on which to put their contact information and names. Organizers of the initiative hope it will help young women to find their way back to where they are staying, and in the process cut down on the annual number of sexual assaults.

THREE people who went missing on a drunken late-night visit to the Paris catacombs have been rescued by police after spending two days lost underground.

Motorists taking a bathroom break at a rest stop in Brandenburg might not get much privacy these days. Thieves made off with 22 stainless-steel toilet stall doors within a few days and, up to now, police are clueless. 

SEOUL - South Korean scientists said on Wednesday they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Yonhap news agency reported.

OTTAWA -- Ottawa runners: Beware angry birds...

28/07/11 - On Wednesday, a man armed with a gun had a row with his girlfriend. She managed to escape with her three children, but the man barricaded himself in a flat. Passers-by were kept at a distance and customers in an Aldi store across the road had to stay inside.

Vandals broke into a Catholic church in North Rhine-Westphalia and peed into the bowl of holy water, the police announced on Thursday

A MUM died after flying to Poland for a cut-price £4,800 boob job and tummy tuck, an inquest heard.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3710297/Mum-Freda-Heath-dies-after-cut-price-boob-job-in-Poland.html#ixzz1SvRPFrrK

Media reports have emerged about a British company that provides access for tourists to use Swiss shooting ranges to fire machine guns in a secret military facility.

(with audio link) 

A burglar who gorged on a typical Austrian delicacy was struck down with pepper spray by a landlord ...

Two young girls escaped from a fire in their home by jumping out of the window – and safely onto a trampoline placed there by quick-thinking neighbours, police in Bavaria said over the weekend.

Rising commodity prices have prompted thieves to target copper cables and other metal parts used by railways, forcing interruptions in train service in Germany and other European countries. Now, new invisible markers may help German rail get the upper hand.

The newest weapon in the fight against malaria may be in your gym bag.

BARRIE, Ont. - A pregnant woman with a toddler in the backseat was robbed at knife-point on Wednesday at a drive-thru ATM, say police.

A noise that sounded like the screams of a child drew Miami police to a van in a parking lot on Monday.

Fans of the late Paul the Octopus might be loath to replace the unlikely star of the 2010 World Cup. But the death of the famous cephalopod -- who correctly predicted the outcome of eight matches during the tournament -- left a void that a number of other zoos and aquariums have since been trying to fill .

The security of Germany's new multi-million-euro spying agency headquarters might be compromised; blueprints for the building are missing, allegedly stolen. The government says it's looking for the plans, and answers.

A 52-year-old man has been jailed for failing to pick up the mess from his two Great Dane dogs

A Tyrolean landlord nearly burned his house down trying to kill a swarm of wasps.

A brown bear from Italy killed 21 sheep in the canton of Graubünden, according to reports.

City of Brussels has agreed to a request from Lambic brewer Cantillon to allow the brewery to use old cellars under the Hooikaai or Hay Quay to ferment its brew. The city is offering the use of the cellars free of charge.

A MAN driving under the influence of cannabis has caused nine accidents by travelling the wrong way up a motorway at speeds of up to 130kph.

After a number of Facebook-organized parties that have spun out of control, several state interior ministers are demanding tougher measures, including banning the gatherings in advance.

Police are investigating the discovery of cannabis plants growing at a Thuringia office of the environmentalist Greens party, prompting a political firestorm in the state.

A five-year-old boy in Germany found two home-made pipe bombs at a playground but escaped unscathed, police said after arresting three men who admitted to planting the explosives.

Man sells sausage. Vegan pushes man. Dog bites man. A bizarre scuffle between animal rights activists and a Berlin bratwurst seller on Saturday was settled abruptly by the intervention of a German shepherd.

The pilot of a zeppelin was killed and three passengers had to leap to safety when the aircraft caught fire and crashed in central Germany Sunday evening, a police spokesman said.

Ironic comment ;-)

Another governmental 'Punch and Judy Show' within Defense is on political stage now - concerning mail heading from petitioning soldiers to the office of the parliamentary ombudsman for the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. The plot: Penny-pinching on highest possible degree.

German soldiers have two channels for filing requests or report complaints; firstly, within the chain of command - secondly by petitioning the ombudsman, called 'Wehrbeauftragter'; the official title in English: parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces.

Nearly 5.000 petitions to the office of Commissioner Hellmut Königshaus (60, FDP) were filed in the year 2010 (see Wikipedia, source ombudsman 1959-2010) by military personnel.

Well, internal 'service' mail or 'official service mail' will be shipped from the sender to the recipient free of charge or paid for by the unit. It's naturally comprehensible that a formal complaint, forwarded through the chain of command, qualifies as 'official service mail'.

But, surprise, surprise, a petition to the ombudsman allegedly doesn't qualify. The forwarder of the petition should pay the 55 ct postage ($0.80) on his/her own according to ministerial big-brains who obviously also want cutbacks in the number of petitions to the ombudsman.

The scope of this 'a penny saved is a penny earned' approach may be a whopping heap of €2.750 ($4.000) estimated annual savings from 8.300.000.000 euros to be saved by the end of budget year 2015.

In the German Defense Ministry, this 'ultra-important' order was made by two ministerial units "FüM Pers and R II 2" - file number 39-20-05/00, dated April 18th, 2011. By this double order, we are recognizing that the MoD (GE) has a 'double' redundancy; whoa, now it's crystal-clear why the 'Bundeswehr reform' commission proposed a cut by 50 per cent for the 3.000 ministerial posts. (sarc)

The judicial brains of FüM Pers and R II 2 have compared petitions to the ombudsman with individual legal actions at administrative or military case courts ('Truppendienstgericht'), thus no basis / obligation to pay for the postage. 

The judicial experts of the German Bundeswehr soldiers' association (Deutscher BundeswehrVerband - DBwV) are having a neat counter-argument. Due to the lack of the explicit meaning of 'official service mail' ("Is it real that this important term has not been defined by the over-eager regulators who are inclined to define and compare the soldiers' way to the restrooms and canteens as private or official???") the issue has to be properly interpreted. A look into the respective law concerning the office and tasks of the ombudsman has already given an implicit answer in favor of the sender, according to the analysis of DBwV.  

Well, the 'ombudsman law' states that the petitioner('s mail) is not required to take the official chain of command for filing his/her case. This is officially and explicitly written into the law; and it has a reason - because, if the petition entirely was a private thing of the petitioner's, the reference wouldn't be mentioned. It's also common law opinion that nothing is redundant what's written into law. 

This obviously means - as converse argument and implication - that 'official service mail' exists that is not mandatory sent via the ordinary chains of command ('official channels'), see?

You might be inclined to think "What is the fuss all about?".

Well, you might recognize the intrinsic desires of over-regulators to define all kinds of admin b.s.

The admin 'chaos' of two units within the ministry regulating the same issue clearly indicates a need for immediate action - not in terms of saving postage for 'official service mail' but in getting rid of redundant posts in the 'ivory tower'.

SION, SWITZERLAND – Drivers who had started sampling the goods at the Valais wineries Open day Friday 3 June might have wondered about the strength of the wine if they were on the A9 autoroute, where a camel and two horses were hitched to the safety bar on the median strip... 

Vultures from an Austrian zoo are part of an extraordinary project by German police.

Due to the abolition of border controls, German customs and immigration personnel have been checking suspicious vehicles and people within German borders randomly, and very often near rest areas and former borders.

Last Monday at 6:40 a.m. on the autobahn A20 near the Polish border at the rest area of Lindholz, the present mobile task force of the Federal Police wanted to check a van, Ford Galaxy, with Danish license plates.

A police officer on a motorbike quickly approached the van, overtook it at a speed of about 200 kph (160 mph) and gave the 'follow me' order. But the thug in the car didn't have the intention to follow. Instead, the driver, a 30 y/o male Polish citizen, touched the motorbike, creating a life-threatening situation for the officer.

Fortunately, the cop didn't get a scratch but only his vehicle (damage at about €1.500 / U.S.-$2150).

The federal officer alerted his colleagues, and the guy was caught in Ahlbeck on his getaway to Poland.

Why didn't the young Pole stop? Well, because he stole the van in Denmark by having professionally opened the van's doors and cracked the ignition lock. Some additional hobby and professional tools and electrical devices were found as well and confiscated.

The Pole was arrested on the spot, and the office of the district attorney of Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-W Pomerania has filed criminal charges against him.

The counts are attempted murder in the second, causing an accident with 'hit-and-run', grand theft and handling stolen goods.

What's the difference to chases in the U.S.?

Well, I don't think that an American state police trooper on a motorbike would have tried to overtake this thug at 160 mph. I rather believe that quite a bunch of police cars would have been assembled to chase and stop the perpetrator.

The German federal police officer had really risked his life unnecessarily. Thank goodness, he didn't make a flight stunt which could have been life-threatening or worse.

This nasty example of a ruthless, reckless, inhuman criminal behavior shows that the current soft approach toward sentencing those thugs without borders should be revised.

The Danish People's Party pushed the conservative, right-of-center minority coalition in Copenhagen toward stricter border controls. If there had already been an 'exit control procedure' at the Danish-German border the guy would probably been caught on the Danish side.

Nevertheless, thumbs up for the federal police task force officers who successfully caught this criminal. 

A disorientated cyclist was stopped after riding along a motorway – in the wrong direction.

In Germany, you often hear traffic messages by radio,"Attention, pedestrians on the autobahn A... near ... - be careful in both directions." In most cases, it is not a bus load of tourists who wander on the emergency lane but the cargo of ruthless human traffickers, international organized mobsters - unloading refugees, asylum seekers from distant countries without any IDs or passports mostly by night.

Shortly after midnight on Saturday 20th, 2011 at around 12.05 am, federal police officers checked a van with British lincense plate at the German ferry port Puttgarden (Isle of Fehmarn). The driver, a 49 y/o male Latvian, had the offical papers but not the six young Afghan juveniles (15-16) whom he obviously wanted to 'smuggle' to Scandinavia. The 'Vogelfluglinie' (bird's covey line) is an autobahn-ferry transit connection to the Danish Isle of Lolland. 

Well, what happened next? The six Afghan juveniles -two of whom had already been 'administratively processed' in Greece and Italy (!) by (police) authorities - have been put under custodial care in official youth welfare facilities.

And the driver? The investigating judge in Oldenburg/Ostholstein, Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, released him on bail with a 'whopping' payment of €650 ($910). His car wasn't confiscated.

The bail was allegedly levied to ensure the guy's presence at criminal court after further police and district attorney investigations. Will he ever show up then?

One can only laugh about such naivety. This kind of 'justice approach' can be regarded even as an invitation for the 'perpetrator' and the criminal gangs behind him to continue and extend 'shipping tours' of illegals. The means of transportation, namely the van, wasn't impounded. Obviously, the German penal code hasn't the legal basis for confiscation and sale when a vehicle is involved as means of committing a crime.

Hey, perhaps, the guy got even a friendly good bye and take care, and drove off after having paid the bail with a happy smile and spiritually given them the finger.

The Federal Police labeled the incident a success of the joint task force Schengen South!

Really? If you wanted to get tough on crime, like drug- or human-trafficking, you should drain and dry the swamp, meaning by taking their money and, at least, their means of transportation. A hired car? Well, no problem. Give notice to the car company, they are allowed to pick it up at the official impound facility. Costs? What costs? The rental car company can retroactively charge the credit card of the perpetrator or pocket the cash deposit due to breach of contract, any questions? A bounced check or no money transfer by the card company? Well, the car companies are savvy enough to set up databases by blacklisting those 'customers'.

This justice system toward those criminals is so flawed one is inclined to think that law enforcement of quite simple traffic offenses get more attention than the 'thugs without border' issues. But, at least, the Danes are going to address this mess by re-introducing border controls.

What would the Danish immigration and customs authorities have done if they had picked up the guy and the juveniles in Rödbyhavn (DK), on their soil?

Simple answer, they would have shipped them back by ferry to Puttgarden (D) -their 'first' pick up location.

Not quite, two juveniles had already been administratively processed in Greece or Italy; probably expulsion, they will be processed there again.

And the other four? Oh, that'll take a lot of time and money and care to get them back to their homeland.

Btw, the radio traffic messages, mentioned above, often peak on weekends! I'm wondering why.  

BERN, SWITZERLAND – A 39-year-old police officer was killed on duty when a tenant who was being evicted shot and killed him at 08:00 Tuesday morning 24 May in Schafhausen im Emmental. Police said late Tuesday that a private letter had been sent to an employee of the bankruptcy and receivership office warning of a “possible reaction” by the gunman should he be evicted...

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Police in Zurich arrested an unusual-looking drug runner Wednesday at Kloten Airport, a man disguised as a missionary, complete with flowing robes.

Quick action by the head of a Canadian choir touring Sweden narrowly averted an accident when the driver of their tour bus suffered a heart attack at full speed, Swedish media reported Monday....

Café employees and customers received a shock on Friday when a colony of bees emerged from a terrace parasol.

MONTREAL - A woman whose nose was ripped off by a pit bull has been boosted by the generosity of strangers after Quebec ruled that she's ineligible for a publicly funded prosthetic nose.

LONDON, Ont. - The Hells Angels in Ontario are under attack by an unexpected new foe -- bureaucrats, QMI Agency has learned.