WhiteBoard News for Monday, December 2, 2002

Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Reuters):

A Montenegrin family thought a World War II artillery shell was the ideal replacement for a broken table leg -- until it exploded, injuring eight people as they were about to eat a meal. 

The Miskovic family in the town of Danilovgrad was preparing the local specialty of grilled pork fat on the table when the old shell went off at the weekend, the Yugoslav daily Vecernje Novosti reported on Monday. 

"It was our own idea to replace the missing leg with this cannon grenade," house owner Milovan Miskovic said. "We thought it was harmless...it was here in our courtyard for some 50 years." 

But "all of a sudden, we heard a loud bang and then everything went black." 

The newspaper reported the victims suffered only light injuries. 
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Sunderland, England (Ananova):

A firm in Sunderland is offering presents based on people's genetic fingerprints.

Complement Genomics has begun selling DeSigNAgifts as a sideline to its usual geno-medicine business.

The idea is to offer people the chance to buy gifts for loved ones featuring their own DNA sequence.

Customers swab the inside of the recipient's mouth with a special kit provided by the company.

They then send it back to the company with an accompanying description of the kind of gift they want.

So far the genetic barcode patterns have been applied to necklaces, rugs and champagne flutes among other objects.

Chief executive Neil Sullivan told New Scientist: "It's an exclusive gift based on a unique gene profile.

"It's a one-off that can never be repeated."

Mr Sullivan stressed that the DNA samples are taken in accordance with international law and only kept for three months.
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Newcastle, England (Ananova):

A police helicopter has been used to blow two men to safety who were drowning in a freezing river.

The men, Anthony Wakefield, 22, and a 19-year-old, had been in the River Tyne in Newcastle for about 20 minutes and were "severely fatigued" by the time the North East Air Support unit had been summoned.

One man was clutching a lifebelt while another was being carried by a river current, police said.

A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "The police helicopter attended, it hovered over the two men who were in the middle of the river and used the down-draught from the rotor blades to blow the men to safety at the river bank.

"Police officers on the riverbank then threw a line to the men and dragged them approximately 20 yards to safety while clutching the lines."

By the time they were plucked from the river one man was almost unconscious while the other was "severely fatigued", and without the helicopter rescue neither would have stood much chance of survival, the spokeswoman said.

The men, both from the Newcastle area, who were not being named, were taken to the city's General Hospital suffering minor injuries and were later released.

Police said it was not clear how the pair came to be in the water, but said they had been crossing the river on the Swing Bridge which links Gateshead and Newcastle.
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Saronna, Italy (Il Nuovo):

A shoplifter who stuffed a frozen chicken drumstick down his underpants was caught because he couldn't stop hopping around.

A cashier spotted the 25-year-old man moving around and repeatedly touching his groin as he queued for tills at a supermarket in Saronno, Italy.

She called a security officer and the man immediately admitted he had stuffed some frozen food down the front of his pants, Il Nuovo website reports.

The man said he had been unable to keep still because the frozen drumstick was giving him pain. He was handed over to the police who charged him with theft.
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Johannesburg, South Africa (Reuters):

A thief who tucked a stolen mobile phone into his underpants to hide it from the law has been caught out by officers who called the device and heard it ringing inside his trousers, South African police say. 

The 18-year-old man was arrested on Thursday near the east coast city of East London after police saw him rob a woman at gunpoint on her way to church, police spokeswoman Michelle Matroos said. 

"They searched him, but they didn't get (her) cell phone back. While they were in the charge room one of the officers decided to call the number. ... They heard the phone go off, and when they searched the suspect they found it in his underpants," she told Reuters. 
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Jacksonville, Florida (AP):

Maurice Goldstein says his decision to retire is simple. 

"None of my clients are alive anymore," the 91-year-old lawyer said. 

On Friday, Goldstein and his 79-year-old brother, William, will close the law office they have shared for the past 50 years. Both have spent most of their careers specializing in civil cases. 

"There is not a lawyer in town who doesn't know and respect them," said James Moseley Jr., president-elect of the Jacksonville Bar Association. 

Maurice Goldstein was admitted to the Florida Bar on July 6, 1935; William Goldstein was admitted Feb. 11, 1949, according to the group's Web site. 

Both were born and raised in Jacksonville, both attended the University of Florida and both served overseas in World War II, Maurice in the Navy, William in the Army. 

The brothers say they are looking forward to spending time with their children and grandchildren, although William seems to be dreading the household chores his wife has planned for him. 

"I'll probably have to come back to work just to get a vacation," he said. 
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Oxfordshire, England (Ananova):

A mother has started her immobilised car by holding her baby son over the steering wheel.

Amanda Webster, from Oxfordshire, had been left stranded in west London after her one-year-old son Oscar ate the radio transponder of her car key.

The tiny part, which was only the size of an aspirin, managed to make contact with the car's immobiliser - even though it was passing through the child's stomach at the time.

Mrs Webster called in the RAC when the car failed to start.

Patrolman Keith Scott has told BBC News Online: "His mum remembered that Oscar had been sucking at the keys, and when we looked at them, the cover over the transmitter was off and the transmitter wasn't there. It dawned on us that Oscar had probably swallowed it."

"His mum sat in the driver's seat, and put him on her lap with his tummy pressed up against the wheel. We were amazed when she turned the key and the car burst into life."
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Chow
SuperChef
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