WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Bangkok, Thailand (AP):

"Doing time" is not usually considered a laughing matter, but the people running Thailand's prisons would like to change that _ for a day, anyway. 

The country's Corrections Department will hold a laughter contest for convicts Wednesday as part of a program to ease stress in overcrowded prisons. 

The project _ called "A Little Laugh A Day Brightens Your Day" _ will award a trophy to the contestant whose laugh, performed in front of other prisoners, is judged most contagious, a news release from the department said Tuesday. 

A separate competition will be held for telling jokes, the department's director-general, Kwantai Wasawong, was quoted saying. 

Particularly tense and mentally-ill prisoners will be encouraged to take part, said Sorasith Jongcharoen, director of the Special Rehabilitation Center in Pathum Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok, where the event will be held. 

The laughter competition is the latest in a series of measures promoted by the authorities to attempt to ease stress among prisoners. Other officially sanctioned activities have included meditation, choir singing, cooking lessons and soccer tournaments. 

The country's 132 prisons, designed to hold 100,000 inmates, are currently jammed with more than 250,000 prisoners. There has been an influx of prisoners in recent years convicted of drug offenses. 
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Arezzo, Italy (Ananova):

An Italian student took her final law exam in a hospital delivery room after authorities said giving birth was not an excuse to miss the test.

Antonella Magnani, 28, from Arezzo was about to give birth when a team of eight examiners turned up to question her on public rights and marketing.

Doctors agreed the unusual move, saying her contractions were still irregular and she still had time to answer the questions.

After 30 minutes of questioning, the examiners told her she had passed the exam with top marks.

She gave birth to her daughter Giulia a few hours later.
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Eastern Cape, South Africa (Ananova):

A South African motorist has stunned police by insisting he has a right to use his wife's driving licence - because the law states married couples share their property.

The driver, who has not been named, was so adamant he hadn't broken the law, he produced his marriage certificate to officers who stopped his car in the Eastern Cape area.

Eastern Cape Transport Department spokesperson Tsepo Machaea said: "He became very angry when told that it does not work like that. We accept only the driver's own licence, not that of a spouse."

The motorist was given a £60 fine for driving without a licence and his wife was fined £17 for permitting an unlicensed person to drive her vehicle, reports The Independent.
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Belo Horizonte, Brazil (Ananova):

A Brazilian judge has ruled a man will have to pay child support despite DNA tests showing he is not the father.

Judge Nilton Teixeira Carvalho has ordered Eduardo Papini, of Belo Horizonte to pay $160 a month as DNA tests aren't 100% reliable.

However, geneticist Sergio Danilo Pena told Jornal Nacional: "The margin of error on a DNA test like that is one in a hundred million. It is 99.9% reliable."

Mr Papini had been trying to prove that a 10-year-old he had been supporting was not his natural child and the DNA test supported his case.

But Judge Carvalho said: "There is room for a mistake in the test. In science there is no absolute truth."

He chose instead to rely on testimonies and ruled that the child was Mr Papini's natural child and also fined him $16,000.
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New Richmond, West Virginia (AP):

Four tardy students at Wyoming East High School put a new spin on that old our-school-bus-ran-late excuse it was their rafts that ran late. 

Coben Thorn, Adam Fulford, Eric McKinney and Jarrod Brewer decided to take advantage of a two-hour class delay on April 16 and travel to school by raft. 

Three of the four had previously ridden rafts on the Gauley and New rivers. McKinney was the only novice. 

"It was something we'd always wanted to do," Thorn said. 

Riding in two small rubber rafts, they made their way down the Guyandotte River with homemade paddles constructed from sticks, cookie sheets and duct tape. 

However, they miscalculated the time required to make the eight-mile trip and missed their first class. 

Word of their journey had spread and about 50 students and four teachers were waiting when they arrived. 

"The water was extremely cold," Thorn said. "By the time we got to school, we were shaking." 
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