… Finally Friday … July 20 th 2007

Imagine owning John Lennon's glasses; online bids hit $1.6M Last Updated: Saturday, July 14, 2007 | 4:28 PM ET CBC Arts Bids at an online auction for a pair of John Lennon's trademark round granny glasses could hit the $ 2 million mark. The gold-rimmed glasses, worn by the former Beatle on the band's Japan tour in 1966, were placed on the block Friday by auction house 991.com, which says bidding hit £750,000 ($1.6 million Cdn) in the first 24 hours. "Our phones have been in meltdown," sales director John Warner told BBC News. "It's almost impossible to put a value on them. They're the rarest of the rare." Some reports in Britain say the price could hit £1 million ($2.1 million Cdn).

Saudi fighters pose special problem Many attacks linked to key regional ally By Ned Parker Los Angeles Times July 16. 2007 6:31AM A lthough Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran for helping the insurgents and militias attacking U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third next-door neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers. The U.S. military believes 45 percent of all foreign militants are Saudi , 15 percent are from Syria and Lebanon, and 10 percent from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures released to the Los Angeles Times by the officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners held in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudi. Saudi fighters are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than any other nationality, said the senior American military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity for the U.S. government. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the pivotal role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

Stuntman's stick ship revives Vikings' voyage LELYSTAD, Netherlands (Reuters) - A Viking ship made from ice-cream sticks set sail across the Netherlands' IJsselmeer lake on Friday and its stuntman builder hopes to cross the Atlantic later. The 15-metre (50-foot) Thor was made from 15 million recycled ice-cream sticks glued together by U.S.-born Robert McDonald, his son and more than 5,000 children. "Pick up your ice-cream stick, send them to me and I will put them to use," McDonald, 48, said on radio, hoping to auction the ship later and donate the proceeds to charity. "Kids from all over the world started mailing them to me. I got enough sticks to build three of those ships," said McDonald. McDonald, badly injured as a child in a gas explosion that killed the rest of his family, is still looking for donations to finance his Atlantic voyage, the proceeds of which will go to children in hospitals and in disaster zones. He has worked as a stuntman in 400 films. He needs a crew daring enough to repeat the ancient Viking route to North America via Iceland and Greenland. (c) Reuters 2007

California's Wine Surprise July 12, 2007 - The connoisseurs may cringe, the snobs may even sob, but the judges have spoken: California's best chardonnay costs less than $ 3 . Charles Shaw Chardonnay, better known as " Two Buck Chuck ," beat hundreds of other wines and was named the top prize in a prestigious tasting competition in California. "The characteristics that we look for in our gold medal winner & a nice creamy butter, fruity & it was a delight to taste," said 2007 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition judge Michael Williams. The affordable wine beat out 350 other California chardonnays to win the double gold. Second place went to an $18 bottle, and the most expensive wines at the event, at the price of $55, didn't even medal. To find this prize winner, you need not go to a fancy wine shop or elite retailer. Charles Shaw Chardonnay is mass produced in California and only sold through the quirky Trader Joe's grocery stores. abc NEWS

Saudi Beheadings on the Rise Again Saturday July 14, 2007 10:46 PM Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Rizana Nafeek, a 19-year housemaid from Sri Lanka, is on death row because the baby in her care died while she was bottle-feeding him. If her appeal is turned down, she will be taken to a public square to be publicly beheaded. The Sri Lankan government says it is working for a reprieve, and has until Monday to file the plea. A last-minute pardon by the infant's parents could also spare her. But if her execution goes ahead, it will be the latest in a surge of beheadings that could surpass the kingdom's record of 191 in 2005. After dropping to 38 last year, the figure for 2007 is already at least 102, including three women, according to Amnesty International. Beheading has always been the punishment meted out to murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and armed robbers in Saudi Arabia. Whether what Nafeek did amounts to murder has never been spelled out by courts or other officials, but Saudi authorities, facing sustained criticism from foreign human rights groups, insist they are simply enforcing God's law. In February, four Sri Lankan workers were executed for armed robbery and their headless bodies left on public display in Riyadh, triggering harsh criticism from international rights groups.

This little animal really exists! Unbelievable but true. It's called a Naked Mole-Rat, from Africa . Going through life is hard enough, But to go through life looking like a ......dick with buck teeth must be horrible!

Toni Lynn Woods, 37: Middle-school teacher in Braxton County, W.Va., confessed in 2005 to having sexual intercourse with three juveniles a total of four times and oral sex with one of those juveniles and another juvenile a total of four times. She reportedly described herself as a "monster" when she pleaded guilty. She resigned, surrendered her teaching certificate, and was given consecutive sentences of one-to-five years on four counts of third-degree sexual assault.

Carrie McCandless, 29 : The former Colorado social-studies teacher, who also happens to be married to the principal, was charged in November 2006 with having had sexual contact with a 17-year-old male student during an overnight school camping trip. The instructor, who also coached cheerleading, pleaded guilty April 24, 2007, to felonies of tampering with physical evidence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of unlawful sexual contact with a minor. She was not expected to serve any jail time.

90-Year-Old Man Busted For Public Indecency July 19, 2007 08:06 AM EDT Leonard Dickman / Courtesy Hamilton County Sheriff's Office (CINCINNATI) -- A 90-year-old man has been arrested for public indecency at a local park. Leonard G. Dickman, of West Harrison, Ind. was arrested Tuesday afternoon at Mount Airy Forest. According to the arrest report, Dickman was arrested while sitting in his red Kia Rio and exposed his private parts by raising the leg of his shorts. Dickman is also accused of touching an undercover officer. Police have made several arrests in the Mount Airy Forest in the past few weeks after setting up an undercover sex sting. Dickman pled guilty on Wednesday to public indecency, a misdemeanor, and got 6-months probation. The judge also barred him from all Hamilton County parks.

July 19, 2007, 6:32AM Fetus found in Lubbock home; 7 kids removed Associated Press LUBBOCK, TEXAS — A judge Wednesday ordered seven children removed from their rat-infested home strewn with dirty diapers after the mother's miscarriage led to the discovery of the dead fetus in a baby wipe box in the refrigerator. Gloria Ramirez, 26, was four months pregnant when she delivered the stillborn baby in her bathtub with the help of her oldest child, a 9-year-old daughter, according to court documents. Authorities came to the home after she called a funeral home to ask about a casket for the fetus, a spokesman for Child Protective Services said. Anthony Moya, the 40-year-old father of the six younger children, has been charged with seven counts of child endangerment, and the same charges were expected to be filed against Ramirez next week, Lubbock police Sgt. Scott Farmer said. When authorities arrived at the dilapidated house July 7, they found stacks of dirty diapers — nearly four feet high in closets — throughout the house, along with rat, roach and lice infestations, according to documents. There was little food, and some of the children told CPS investigators they ate only a hot dog out of the freezer for breakfast that morning, having been prohibited from opening the refrigerator, documents show. "The lack of sanitation was just amazing," Farmer said. "Trash is one thing but what they were storing up was ... my goodness." Decaying food lay around the home, trash bins overflowed, and mattresses had no sheets and were dirty, CPS spokesman Greg Cunningham said. Agency investigators suspected the children were malnourished, he said. The oldest child often was left to care for the other six when Moya and Ramirez went out, court records state. The children range in age from 11 months to 9 years. The two youngest children were taken to the hospital for suspected dehydration, and all seven had to be treated for head lice, documents show.

Oxygen-depleted 'dead zone' growing in Gulf "Dead zone" is at the end of the Mississippi River system Zone would be the largest measured since mapping began in 1985 NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Researchers predict that the recurring oxygen-depleted "dead zone" off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to 8,543 square miles -- its largest in at least 22 years. The forecast, released Monday by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect storms might have. The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is one of the largest areas of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The pollution is carried downstream by the Mississippi and comes from throughout the United States. Excess nutrients can spur the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can be forced to move or die, the consortium Web site says. Eugene Turner, a professor of oceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University who is involved with the report, said it's tough to determine whether fish are dying because of hypoxia or other factors, such as climate effects. However, "we really don't want to mess with this, to make it worse," he said. The dead zone usually begins forming in the spring and stays through summer and into the fall. Though the size of the dead zone has shrunk some years, on average it has steadily grown larger, Turner said.

The Senate voted 87 to 1 to double the bounty on Osama bin Laden to $50 million and to require President Bush to refocus efforts on capturing him after reports that al-Qaeda is gaining strength. WASHINGTON POST, 7-14-07

Meet Osama's niece Wafah Dufour ... as she appears in GQ. She's not the model niece Osama bin Laden's looking for - but she is modeling. This is how Wafah Dufour, the al-Qaeda leader's niece, appeared in the January 2006 issue of GQ magazine. Dufour, who took her mother's maiden name after the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, is an aspiring musician struggling to make a name for herself. She says she has never met Osama bin Laden. "Everyone relates me to that man, and I have nothing to do with him," she said in the article. "There are 400 other people related to him, but they are all in Saudi Arabia, so nobody's going to get tarred with it. "I'm the only one here." Reuters

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