Free Republic

Prehistoric Long Man is '16th century new boy' By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent (Filed: 02/10/2003) The origins of England's tallest chalk hill figure, the Long Man of Wilmington, have puzzled historians and archaeologists for generations. Carved into a steep slope on the South Downs in Sussex, the imposing figure has been claimed as an Anglo Saxon warrior, a Roman folly and an Iron Age fertility symbol. The Long Man of Wilmington But according to a team of researchers, the Long Man may be a relatively recent addition to the landscape. Tests carried out this summer have produced compelling evidence that...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Three minutes after Jim Hager started eating M&Ms with a pair of chopsticks, he was headed for the Guinness Book of World Records. The 47-year-old Oakland resident gobbled 115 M&Ms in 3 minutes Sunday, breaking a previous record of 112 Smarties consumed by Kathryn Ratcliffe of England in December 2002. The new record won't become official until event organizers send documentation to the Guinness association, including a videotape, photographs and written declarations from witnesses, but it seems likely he'll have his place in the list. For his efforts, he received 25 pounds of M&Ms courtesy of...

SEATTLE — A man who has served more than 12 years in prison after being convicted twice of stabbing his wife to death has won the right to a third trial. A unanimous three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals overturned the second conviction of Jerry Bartlett Jones on Monday, ruling that the trial judge wrongly barred the introduction of evidence about a neighbor that Jones says was the killer. Snohomish County prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to appeal to reinstate the conviction, proceed to a third trial or drop the matter. The case stems from the...

A Labour Party member was arrested as he tried to confront Tony Blair over the Iraq war as the prime minister was on his way to deliver his keynote speech in Bournemouth. Some reports suggest the man, who was later released without charge, had shouted that he wanted to perform a citizen's arrest on Mr Blair in a protest over the war in Iraq. Dorset Police say they arrested a 41-year-old man from Cardiff for a public order offence after he approached the prime minister and his wife as they walked from their hotel to the conference centre. But they...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- A sudden, irresistible urge. A portable toilet. A confrontation with an angry construction worker. Now, a federal lawsuit. William Tremmel, 68, of Altoona, Pa., needed to go. Badly. So he dashed to the nearest portable toilet on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. Problem was, it belonged to construction workers for Weeks Marine, a company hired by the city to replenish the beach. And those workers were fed up with outsiders using the company can. They retaliated, Tremmel claims in a lawsuit filed last month, by driving a bulldozer or front-end loader to the toilet and blocking the...

Hello Big Man - the words that told father of jungle kidnap boy that his son was safe By Peter Foster (Filed: 26/09/2003) After nine days lost in a "trance-like" state of anxiety, James Scott heard the words that told him beyond doubt that his son had come through the ordeal of 12-day trek in the jungles of Colombia. "Hello, Big Man," said 19-year-old Matthew over a scratchy Colombian telephone line - using the family nickname for his father, a very tall, retired orthopaedic surgeon. Despite his exhaustion, Matthew was sufficiently well to make light of his ailments, which included...

A man and his donkey have been arrested in Cyprus after they tried to poke fun at passport checks by crossing the island's divide equipped only with a "donkey passport". Greek Cypriot pensioner Savvas Christodoulou and his donkey, Shelidona, were part of a protest which activists hoped would highlight opposition to passport checks at the recently opened border, which has divided the island since 1974. Turkish Cypriot police encouraged them to cross the Nicosia checkpoint into Turkish-controlled territory but moments later plainclothes officers bundled Mr Christodoulou into a car. His donkey, the heavily pregnant Shelidona, was led off to the...

Guantanamo man charged with spying By Rupert Cornwell 24 September 2003 An American serviceman who worked as a translator at the Camp Delta prison for al-Qa'ida and Taliban terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay has been charged with spying, the Pentagon said yesterday. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, who worked as an Arabic language translator at the camp in south-eastern Cuba where 660 people are in custody, was arrested two months ago. He is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. He is facing 32 charges, including nine counts relating to espionage and others including disobeying orders and making false...

VAN BUREN, Ark. (AP) -- A man dressed in women's underwear, awakened as he slept in a vehicle at Lee Creek Reservoir, had a homemade bomb in the car, a Crawford County deputy says. Earl Henry Woodruff, 40, of Van Buren, was arrested about 5 a.m. Monday after a deputy was sent to the reservoir in response to a call about a parked vehicle occupied by a man wearing women's underwear. Sgt. Daymon Blount of the Crawford County sheriff's office said that, when he arrived at the site, he found a man sitting asleep at the wheel of a sport-utility...

DENVER Sept. 19 — A construction worker kidnapped a jogger and raped her five times over a span of 24 hours in his pornography-littered trailer, videotaping one of the assaults and happily watching it before letting her go, authorities said. Police say the 45-year-old woman was set free after she agreed to let the suspect make the video, pretend she was into it and kiss him. They had sex for 20 minutes and he replayed the video. "The male was very happy about it," an arrest affidavit said. The suspect then left her at a Denver motel with $2 in...

A German man had his car and wallet stolen by a robber while he sat on the toilet at a petrol station in Holland. The 25-year-old had fastened his car keys to the belt of his trousers for safekeeping after stopping at the service station, near Eindhoven. But while he sat on the toilet with his trousers down, another man reached under the partition and grabbed the keys, and also his wallet. The German man chased after the robber as quickly as he could - but by the time he reached the car park, his car had gone. He did...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Hundreds of people at a shopping mall fought over nearly $10,000 launched into a crowd by a real estate investor known as the "Money Man." Six people were taken to hospitals and six others were treated for cuts and bruises, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said. The most serious injury was a possible broken arm, he said. Police said at least 500 people crowded the BayWalk courtyard on Saturday for the cash giveaway. Kevin Shelton appeared on a balcony before firing $2 bills out of his "cash cannon," a small silver tube.

PORTLAND - A man died after falling out of his boat during the Row for the Cure fundraiser in Portland Sunday morning. Witnesses said the 63-year-old man appeared to have some type of medical problem before falling out of his boat. Rowers nearby quickly jumped into the water to help and held his head above water. The U.S. Coast Guard arrived quickly and pulled the man out of the Willamette River near the Morrison Bridge. The Coast Guard administered CPR but could not restore the man’s breathing. Authorities did not immediately release the man’s name or hometown, pending notification of...

Did Caligula have a God complex?Stanford, Oxford archaeologists find evidence that depraved tyrant annexed sacred temple BY JOHN SANFORD Archaeologists from Stanford, Oxford and the American Institute for Roman Culture have unearthed evidence that Caligula, in an act of astonishing hubris, extended his palace to the podium of a sacrosanct temple. The discovery, made during the final weeks of a month-and-a-half-long dig this summer in the Roman Forum, appears to support accounts by some ancient historians that the profligate but short-lived emperor was a megalomaniac. "It's the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth taking over St. Paul's Cathedral as an anteroom,"...

LONDON (AP) -- A protester rolled a nut to Prime Minister Tony Blair's doorstep with his nose on Friday, completing a 7-mile journey across London aimed at highlighting the issue of student debt. Mark McGowan, 37, crawled on his hands and knees for 11 days as he pushed the nut from Goldsmiths College in southeast London to Downing Street using his nose. "I wanted to do something that was particularly difficult, so I think I've proved the point there," said McGowan, who wore a bandage on the tip of his nose. He had spent eight hours a day since Sept....

Al-Jazeera man faces terror trial Giles Tremlett in Madrid Friday September 12, 2003 The Guardian (UK) An al-Jazeera correspondent has been remanded in custody in Madrid to await trial on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaida. Tayssir Alouni's exclusive interviews with Osama bin Laden made him famous during the Afghanistan war. Al-Jazeera reacted with dismay to yesterday's decision by Judge Baltasar Garzon, who will prepare formal charges. "We have faith in Spanish justice but we have even more faith in his innocence," an al-Jazeera spokesman told the Guardian. Mr Alouni, born in Syria but a Spanish citizen, is in Madrid to...

<p>Phoenix police arrested a man Wednesday on suspicion of prostituting girls as young as 14.</p> <p>After a two-month investigation, officers arrested Christopher Arbuckle, 23, on charges of brokering sex services for eight girls, who were mostly missing persons and runaways, said Phoenix police Sgt. Lauri Williams.</p>

DALLAS (AP) - Charles McKinley found a unique way to save a few bucks getting to his parents' house: He crawled into a wooden airplane cargo crate and succeeded in shipping himself from New York to Texas. After hours of traveling, McKinley, 25, of New York City, pried open the crate with a crowbar Saturday morning. He popped up outside his parents' doorstep in the south Dallas suburb of DeSoto, shook the hand of a shocked deliveryman and walked away. The deliveryman called DeSoto police, who arrested him on outstanding Texas warrants. The FBI and the Transportation Security Administration are...

FBI appeals for help after pizza man 'forced to rob bank' is killed by bomb fixed around his neck By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 03 September 2003 The FBI has released pictures of a metal collar that was found fixed around the neck of pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank and then died when a bomb that was locked to the collar exploded. State troopers arrested Brian Wells shortly after he robbed a bank outside the town of Erie in Pennsylvania last Thursday. He told the officers that he had been forced to rob the bank and that he was...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- John Bothe was unemployed with time to spare - so he paid a radio station about $1,000 for air time to showcase his talents as host of a Saturday sports show. Now he's finding the price of that show may be much higher. The state Labor Department determined that Bothe's unpaid radio gig qualified as work and disqualified him from receiving unemployment benefits. Not only has the state put a halt on future benefits, it wants Bothe to return $605 he already collected. "My definition of work is doing a job and getting paid for it,...