WhiteBoard News for Monday, November 24, 2003

Elizabethtown, Kentucky (AP):

A state law mandating that people take a bath once a year is just one of many unusual _ some bizarre _ statutes that are or have been on the books in Kentucky. 

"There are a lot of crazy laws out there," said Ruben Gardner, Elizabethtown's chief of police. 

Another state law, for example, stated that "No female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within this state unless she be escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club." The law was later amended with: "The provisions of this statute shall not apply to females weighing less than 90 pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds, nor shall it apply to female horses." 

Other unusual laws and proposed punishments from across the state include: 

_ Throwing eggs (or tomatoes) at a public speaker could result in up to one year in prison. 

_It is unlawful to dye or color a baby chick, duckling or rabbit and offer it for sale unless six or more are for sale at the same time. 

Steve Park, finance director for the city of Elizabethtown, said he's found some interesting laws that were adopted by the city in the late 1800s and that are still on the books. 

"There's one that states if a horse dies in front of a house, the horse owner has 12 hours to have it removed. If the owner doesn't, then it becomes the responsibility of the property owner to have it removed," Park said. "I'm sure that at the time it was a necessary law, but I'm not sure how needed it is today." 

Another local law concerns a dog tax that was imposed. Park said the handwritten statute, found in very old minutes of city council meetings required a small amount for each dog be collected. "The sheriff is to collect the tax or shoot the dog," according to the minutes. 
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Oslo, Norway (Reuters):

Norway's prime minister cannot use his new bomb-proof car despite a threat of attack by al Qaeda because Norway's state road authority says it is too heavy. 

The vehicle, built by Germany's BMW to specifications for leaders of NATO (news - web sites) nations, has been parked unused in a garage in Oslo since mid-October. 

Weighing in at around four tonnes (8,800 lb) because of armour-plating and thick bullet-proof windows, the car is twice as heavy as a standard BMW 760 iL model and 40 kg over the limit for registration by Norway's road authorities, a spokesman for Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said on Monday. 

"We expect the problem will be solved in a week or two," Bondevik's spokesman Oiyvind Oestang told Reuters. Making the car light enough for registration had meant cutting down on safety features, he said. 

In May, a leader of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network urged Muslims to attack the interests of the United States, Britain, Australia and Norway. It was unclear why Norway, which did not take part in the war in Iraq, was singled out. 
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Trento, Italy (Ananova):

Prosecutors in Italy have decided that a man who showed his newly pierced penis to residents of an old folks' home did not break the law.

Managers at the residential home in Trento took legal action against the employee.

But their complaint was thrown out by the public prosecution service who said it was not an offence to show off a piercing even if it was on a person's private parts.

They said as long as it was not displayed in public and everyone was over the age of 14 it was not a punishable offence.
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Belo Horizonte, Brazil (Ananova):

Three burglars were arrested in Brazil after they returned to a house and asked for the receipts for the goods they had stolen.

The young thieves told the owners of the house in Belo Horizonte that they were struggling to sell the stereo, TV and mobile phones because they didn't have the original receipts.

A police spokesman told Estado de Sao Paulo: "We have never seen anything so stupid.

"It was obvious that when they rang the bell the owner of the house would call us straight away and they were all arrested.

"They are all underage and I think they were just really naive and thought they would get away with going back."
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