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Bruce Fischer, the husband of U.S. Senator for Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, had an awkward exchange with Kamala Harris during the one-on-one ceremonial swearing-in of senators with their families. Following the oath, Harris tells Senator Fischer congratulations and shakes her hand. She then turns to Bruce, who took part in the ceremony by holding the bible for his wife, and extends her hand. Bruce declined the opportunity to shake hands with Harris, who awkwardly quipped, “I won’t bite.” Fischer declined the handshake and put his hands in his pockets. Harris looked surprised and smiled awkwardly.

A group of unmarried couples were whipped in Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday after they were caught behaving amorously -- a crime under the conservative region's Islamic law. Flogging is common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol and having gay sex. It is the only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law. The five couples flogged Thursday received between four and 22 strokes from a rattan cane outside a mosque in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, after they served several months in prison. Religious...

SINGAPORE - An Australian man who molested two women in separate incidents within a span of two hours faces a jail term and caning. Wade James Burridge, 34, a director of his own company that deals in race horses, was convicted of two charges of outrage of modesty. He was sentenced to 11 months' jail and three strokes of the cane on Wednesday (Dec 6). Burridge is filing an appeal and is out on $40,000 bail. He was convicted on Oct 25 after a six-day trial. The court heard he touched the private parts of a 46-year-old events consultant at...

FULL TITLE: Two gay men caught having sex by a vigilante mob will be caned 80 times for breaking Sharia law in strict Indonesian province in the first case of its kind Two gay men who were caught having sex by a vigilante mob will be caned 80 times for breaking Sharia law in a strict Indonesian province. The pair, both in their early 20s, were found in bed together by a group of thugs who raided a boarding house in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh in late March. Police later arrested the distressed couple, who said they were...

On May 22, 1856, in the United States Congress, Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with a walking cane in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier. The beating nearly killed Sumner and it drew a sharply polarized response from the American public on the subject of the expansion of slavery in the United States. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse"[1] that eventually led to the American Civil War.

In 1921, according to the history books, an newly-blind Englishman named James Biggs was feeling threatened by the amount of traffic in his neighborhood. In order to be more visible to motorists, Biggs reportedly painted his cane white. If true, it means the white cane as an aid to the blind is approaching its 100th birthday. Which explains why, in true Silicon Valley fashion, Raghav Ganesh thought the world was overdue for the white cane, 2.0. "There's an old device here that needed an upgrade," Raghav says, "and I thought I could make that better." Raghav Ganesh, a San Jose...

Lawmakers in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province have passed a law that makes gay sex punishable by caning and subjects non-Muslims to it too. The law passed Saturday says anal sex between men is punishable by up to 100 lashes. Women found guilty of "rubbing" their body parts against each other for sexual pleasure are also liable for caning.

The York County Sheriff's Office released dash cam video from a traffic stop in which a deputy shot an elderly man reaching for his cane. WARNING: Video includes some graphic material and language.

Video Linky Here YORK, SC -- A senior citizen was shot during a traffic stop when a police officer stopped him for expired tags and mistook his walking stick for a gun. Mr. Canipe, a veteran of the Vietnam War, stopped his truck when signaled. Without being prompted, he then proceeded to step out of his pickup truck to see what the problem might be. Lacking the strength to walk properly, Mr. Canipe then reached into his truck to pick up his walking stick, as he had done countless times before. But this time was different. Canipe was in...

CLOVER, S.C. — York County deputies say an officer shot a 70-year-old man reaching for a cane during a traffic stop because he thought the man was grabbing a rifle from the bed of his pickup truck. -snip- Sheriff's office spokesman Trent Faris said Knox stopped 70-year-old Bobby Canipe (kah-NYP') of Lincolnton, N.C., for an expired license plate Tuesday evening. Investigators say Canipe got out of his pickup and reached into the truck bed for his cane and Knox fired several shots, hitting Canipe once. -snip- Faris says the shooting was unfortunate, but appeared to be appropriate because Knox felt...

WILMINGTON, Del., A disabled Delaware woman said she used a few good licks from her cane to send a decades-younger burglary suspect packing. The 55-year-old woman, who wanted to be identified only by her first name, Anita, told WTFX-TV, Philadelphia, she saw the young man coming through a window of her home in Wilmington. She started wielding the cane after she "saw him put his foot in, his butt in, ... his arm in, his face in." "My dad told me a long time ago, if the Bible don't get you, the cane will get you," Anita said. Investigators were...

There is one old lady in Florida whom no one will mess with again. She was able to fight off a gunman using only her guts and a metal cane. The Sun Sentinel reports that 80-year-old Josefa Lopez was getting into the backseat of her daughter's SUV Monday afternoon when a man suddenly appeared. He grabbed the 61-year-old daughter's arm and dragged her out of the vehicle. He then pistol-whipped her, leaving her on the ground bleeding from the face. "I thought she was dead," Lopez said in Spanish. "I yelled at [the gunman], 'I am going to kill you,...

Okay, FReepers know everything, so here's a question: what should I look for in a self-defense cane? Four knee surgeries and the prospect of a knee replacement, combined with having to make my run times for the next 4 years till I retire, have made me seriously consider using a cane for both occasional support and for self-defense. Anybody got an idea on the best cane for both support and self-defense? Colonel, USAFR

Kim Jong-il's Physical State Poor During December Visit to Musan - Rumor amongst locals that this visit to Musan will be his last - In need of assistance as he uses a stick throughout - Looked drawn and on his last legs - People despair that nothing will change whether he dies or not A source in Musan, North Hamgyeong Province, relates that on a tour of Musan Mine at the beginning of December, those that saw his face report him confiding that "This visit to the Musan mine could be Kim Jong-il's last steps." Flatly rejecting conjecture that Kim...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The holiday season can hold many hazards for senior citizens, including crime and scams. But one that many don’t think about is falling in crowded malls or on slippery streets. Now there's a new way for seniors to stay safe, healthy and fit. It's called a cane fu class. It's kind of like kung fu but it teaches seniors to use their canes and walking sticks as martial arts weapons. Cane fu also helps folks improve their balance and overall fitness levels. The class is part of the Nifty After Fifty program, the first fitness program that...

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: An Indonesian cleaner who pleaded that he robbed the petrol station he worked in because he needed money for his elderly father's surgery was jailed 36 months and ordered to be whipped twice. Muhammad Marzani Ismail, 25, was also jailed 12 months and ordered to be given one stroke of the rotan for not having a valid travel document. The jail terms run concurrently from his date of arrest on May 21. He admitted robbing Nor Azurra Azhar at the Petronas petrol station in Sentul of RM12,000, cigarettes worth RM300 and prepaid cards amounting to RM700 with...

A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women's armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims, a local newspaper reported Friday. The 36-year-old, who the Straits Times said was mentally unstable, had previous convictions for drug and sex-related offences. He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes, the paper said. He was caught after a housewife reported him to the police. The court meted out the jail term, normally reserved for hardcore criminals, saying...

The habitat of cane toads is spreading across Australia and the poisonous amphibians are decimating populations of freshwater crocodiles, according to a leading biologist. Dr Mike Letnic, of Sydney University, says scores of crocodiles in the tropical, northern region have died after eating toads. His team visited the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory. "[In 2006] we counted more than 600 crocodiles and in 2007 we counted less than 400," he said. "There were dead crocs everywhere. The only thing that had changed between visits was that cane toads had moved through the river system."

FORT BELVOIR, Va., May 15, 2007 – Two local woodworking groups followed a Civil War custom today by presenting a ceremonial cane to a soldier who lost his leg in Iraq. Retired Army Lt. Col. Dennis Walburn, who lost a leg while deployed to Iraq and now serves as deputy chief of operations for the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, accepts an eagle cane from the Northern Virginia Carvers and Capital Area Woodturners, Inc., during a ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Va. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The groups seek to extend the ritual to all...

A robber tried to get money from an 84-year-old man in Greensboro Monday morning. The robber had a gun. Robert Flynn only had a cane to defend himself. Flynn and his cane won the skirmish. Police say the robber used his car to corner in Flynn, revealed a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun and demanded money. Flynn raised his cane and beat the robber. The robber drove away with nothing.