WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Estado de Sao Paulo):
A Brazilian man who was kidnapped in Sao Paulo managed to call his girlfriend and tell her where he was being taken.
He made the call by pressing a pre-programmed button on his mobile phone without the kidnappers noticing.
He then managed to keep the kidnappers talking and dropped details of their route into the conversation, reports Estado de Sao Paulo.
His girlfriend passed on the information to police who arrested the five kidnappers and rescued their victim.
A police spokesman said: "He was really smart. Without his help we would have taken a much longer time to find him and God knows what could have happened to him by then."
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Cologne, Germany (Stadtanzeiger):
A Cologne man is facing drugs charges after he allegedly stopped his car in a police parking space to snort cocaine.
The 27-year-old attracted the interest of officers when he parked in a spot reserved for police cars outside the Innenstadt police station.
A police officer went outside to ask him to park somewhere else, the Stadtanzeiger newspaper reports.
Bending down, he saw the man inside the car allegedly using a rolled-up 20 Euro note to snort cocaine.
When he noticed he was being watched, the man tried to hide his drugs, but failed, say police.
He was taken inside the police station to be formally charged.
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Antwerp, Belgium (Ananova):
Two Belgian-based Moroccan men suspected of drug dealing were acquitted because of their smelly feet.
The public prosecutor in Antwerp had demanded eight month prison sentences for the men who had bought boric salts in bulk.
Boric salts are commonly used by drug dealers to cut cocaine before it is sold on the streets, reports Het Laatste Nieuws.
But the men convinced the judge it was also used by the Moroccan community to treat foot odour.
They told the judge their wives had sent them to the chemist because they couldn't stand the stench anymore.
The judge believed the two men and acquitted them.
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Dublin, Ireland (Ananova):
Three young boys who appeared in an Irish court on burglary charges, crashed a stolen car on their way home.
The three, from Dublin, had been in Drogheda District Court in County Louth in connection with the burglary of a house.
The RTE website says they were released on bail but stole a Nissan Micra to travel back to Dublin.
It's alleged they burgled another house in County Meath on the way back.
Police were alerted and began a chase in north county Dublin where the 12-year-old driver of the stolen car lost control, crashing the car at a roundabout.
One of the passengers had to be cut from the wreckage. Another escaped but was recaptured.
The three boys are in hospital suffering from minor injuries.
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Santiago, Chile (La Cuarta):
Bottles of home-brew beer exploding in the heat prompted a full scale anti-riot operation in a Chilean jail.
Prison guards in Raccagua prison raised the alarm after hearing what they thought was gunfire.
But the "shots" officers heard were actually five bottles of home-brew exploding.
Prisoners had been brewing their own beer in secret and the hot weather caused the bottles to pop their plastic corks.
One of the guards heard the explosions and radioed for help.
The prison was placed on top alert and guards requested help from specialist officers from the capital Santiago.
Regional Prisons Director Henry Bravo told newspaper La Cuarta that heavily armed guards were sent in to search every cell in the prison.
Prison officers expressed their relief after finding nothing worse than the five bottles of home-brew in a loft-space.
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Chow
SuperChef
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