Arkansas legislators lag nation in college experience (Reuters)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) – The Arkansas legislature has the nation's highest percentage of state lawmakers who have not attended college at all, according to a new study by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

There are 135 legislators in Little Rock, 25 percent of whom do not have any college experience, according to the study. Comparatively, 8.7 percent of all state lawmakers nationwide have not attended college.

The five states with the highest percentage of legislators without any college are Arkansas, Montana, Kansas, South Dakota and Arizona.

The most formally educated state legislatures -- those with the highest percentage of lawmakers that have a bachelor's degree or higher -- are in California, Virginia, Nebraska, New York and Texas.

The Arkansas legislature mirrors its state's population, said Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

"It's in keeping with the notion of a representative institution, in that Arkansas is also below the college-educated norm for the (U.S.) population as a whole," Bass told Reuters.

He said that low pay and the fact that being an Arkansas legislator is a part-time job are also factors.

"Our rural, frontier political culture has not traditionally placed an especially high value on academic credentials for positions of leadership in society," Bass said.

According to numerous studies, Arkansas ranks 50th among the states in the percentage of residents older than 25 with a bachelor's degree. One in five Arkansas ninth-graders does not obtain a high school diploma, according to The Arkansas Department of Education.

That should be more of an issue than current legislators' diplomas, said Kathy Webb, a Democratic state legislator from Little Rock.

"I'm a lot more focused on our high school dropout rate than on my colleagues having a college degree," she said.

Webb, who holds a political science degree from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the education level of her statehouse colleagues isn't discussed among them.

No state has minimum educational standards for its legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"A lot of people bring world views based on their experiences as opposed to a degree," Webb said. "I think that diversity is what makes Arkansas a lot less polarized than Washington or other states and we work together regardless of party or degrees."

(Edited by Corrie MacLaggan and Jerry Norton)

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Americans rated most hilarious in global poll (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The Germans have been voted the world's "least funny nationality" in a global poll, which names Americans the funniest overall and the Spanish the most amusing Europeans, ahead of the Italians and French.

The social network and dating website Badoo.com asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name both the "funniest," or best at making people laugh," and "the least funny" nationality.

Americans took the funniest prize, followed by the Spanish in second and Italians in third.

The voting for "least funny" nationality confirmed the view of American novelist Mark Twain that "a German joke is no laughing matter."

The Germans won comfortably, ahead of the Russians and Turks.

Yet, the British -- whose "The Office" and Monty Python shows have become pillars of English-language humor -- learn from the Badoo poll that they are not as funny as they think. They placed just seventh out of 15 -- behind the Brazilians, French and Mexicans.

But they ranked higher when Badoo asked the opposite question: Which nationality do you find the least funny? Here, the British ranked fourth, just after the Turks.

"I'm afraid that we don't find some of the results very funny," said Badoo's Director of Marketing Lloyd Price, who is British.

The Americans topped the poll, as the folks who brought us TV sitcoms like Friends, The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld and any number of comic greats from the Marx Brothers to Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Larry David, Ben Stiller or now Tina Fey.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Patricia Reaney)

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Airport geese to be cooked for poor (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City plans to capture pesky geese that threaten planes departing area airports and send them to Pennsylvania to be cooked for meals for the poor, city officials said.

The plan is aimed at avoiding incidents like the forced landing of a U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River in January 2009 after a flock of errant geese were caught in the engine during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.

Mass culls to clear the geese from the area were authorized after the National Transportation Safety Board positively identified the remains of Canada geese in the engine of the aircraft.

The city will pay for the capture and transport of the geese to facilities in Pennsylvania where they will be distributed to Pennsylvania food banks, a spokesman for the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said.

"Rather than disposing of them in landfills, we wanted to make sure they do not go to waste," the spokesman said.

According to the DEP, no suitable locations could be found in New York that were willing to take the geese as donations.

Officials are currently surveying the New York area for large concentrations of geese.

Last summer, efforts to collect and gas thousands of geese were met with angry protests from animal rights activists.

(Reporting by Bernd Debusmann Jr., editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

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Homeowners use car to chase off suspected burglars (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – In what sheriff's deputies are calling an act of self-defense, two Tennessee homeowners ran their vehicle into one of three burglars they startled when they returned home early this morning.

Michael Harris and Sally Michello were greeted by gunfire from one of the trio of intruders when they arrived at their home in Rutherford County, just south of Nashville, according to Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Lisa Marchesoni.

The burglars fled after one of them was struck by the car. No one was injured by the gunfire, but bullets did strike the door frame of the couple's vehicle, said Criminal Investigations Division Commander Preble Acton.

The victims were defending themselves by using their vehicle to ward off the intruders, said Cpl. Scott Martin. Police said no one was seriously injured.

After police arrived and began searching for the intruders, they stopped one car nearby and determined that the driver was one of the suspects. Another suspect was discovered by Becky, a police dog, and her partner Lt. Kenneth Barrett.

Antonio Jenkins and Rekardo Simmons, both 19, were charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and theft. They are being held in Rutherford County Adult Detention Center

The third suspect, believed to be the gunman, remains at large, according to authorities.

(Writing and reporting by Tim Ghianni; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)

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Students scramble to save lost "prom nights" (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) – Dozens of German student groups have accused an event planning firm of ruining their plans for "prom night" and making off with their money.

The secondary school groups said that the Easy Abi company had taken money for securing locations, dinner and refreshments for the end-of-year student balls but failed provide the offered services, Berlin police said on Friday.

"We've received some 40 complaints and the firm is currently under investigation," a police spokesman said.

Investigators on Thursday raided the firm's office along with several apartments in Berlin, seizing business records, computer hard drives and cash.

Neither the firm nor individuals under investigation could be reached for comment.

"All of us don't come from rich families and had saved a lot for this day," Anuschka Schielin, a student at the Evangelical School Neukoelln in Berlin, told Bild newspaper. "We've now thrown away 7,300 euros."

An American high school tradition that stretches back decades, proms have also become popular among students in modern-day Germany as a way to celebrate end-of-year exams and have grown from simple parties into balls that in some cases cost tens of thousands of euros (dollars).

Similar complaints have been reported to police in Hamburg and are currently under investigation, authorities there said.

Meanwhile, some students in Berlin are hurrying to scrape together a last-minute prom.

Pupils at the Evangelical School are now washing cars and holding a bake sale to finance their prom and students at Berlin's Wilhelm von Siemens Gymnasium received a 2,000 euro donation from their namesake, Siemens AG.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Neighbors sign peace deal to stop feud (Reuters)

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A handshake wasn't enough for two Malaysian neighbors embroiled in a lengthy and bitter feud sparked by complaints over barking dogs -- the two actually signed a peace treaty.

The three-year battle began when one of the men complained to the police in Malaysia's southern Johor state, where they lived, about his neighbor's noisy dogs, the Star newspaper reported.

The dog owner retaliated by playing loud music at night, throwing cans of paint into his neighbor's house and driving his car into the gate. His neighbor filed a counter complaint about the music.

When both men decided to end the feud recently, they opted for a signed peace deal or "Memorandum of Understanding" to keep each other in check.

One of the main points in the peace deal, brokered by a public complaints bureau, is that the dog owner has to find a way to minimize barking at night.

"If either of the two men decides to break the Memorandum of Understanding, the other can bring this document and present it either to the police or in court," said mediator Michael Tay.

"I hope both men can live in peace with each other."

(Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage, editing by Elaine Lies)

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"Very slow" live cruise show a hit (Reuters)

OSLO (Reuters) – Worn out by a fast-paced life and faster-paced television shows but lack a vacation budget? Take a five-day cruise along Norway's scenic fjords, all free and streamed live on Norwegian public television.

For 8,040 minutes straight -- including all the boring bits -- viewers can follow the Hurtigruten MMS Nordnorge cruise ship and its roughly 670 passengers and crew as the vessel steams north along Norway's jagged coastline.

The "minute-by-minute" coverage started on Thursday and includes all on-board announcements and views from 11 cameras focusing on the spectacular fjords, boat traffic around the ship, officers on the bridge and the mostly elderly passengers strolling the decks and taking in the scenery.

"It is slow, it is very slow," said Rune Moeklebust, the project manager for the show running on the NRK2 channel.

"It is the opposite to everything else on TV -- that's why it stands out and why, apparently, people want to watch."

Preliminary viewing data is encouraging, Moeklebust told Reuters, with 1.3 million of Norway's 4.9 million residents at least "stopping by" NRK2 between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. on the first day.

With a peak audience of 325,000 and some 160,000 glued to the broadcast for the entire 7-hour period, the "live documentary" grabbed more viewers than NRK2's usual programing.

Passengers, mostly from Norway and Germany, booked tickets for the 1,460 nautical mile voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes, a Barents Sea port near the Russian border deep in the Arctic, without knowing they would be part of what NRK said is set to be the world's longest uninterrupted live broadcast.

They were informed about the live-broadcasting plan by mail and in meetings after boarding in Bergen on Thursday.

"Some say it's like watching paint dry but it's so fun to sit in the master control room and mix the cameras," said Moeklebust, adding that 22 NRK crew were aboard the vessel providing the non-stop coverage.

Moeklebust said the idea for the cruise livecast came after the success of his previous minute-by-minute coverage from a train making a 7-hour trip between Oslo and Bergen, which was viewed at least in part by 1.2 million people in 2009.

"That night we realized just how much people wanted to see TV like this and we started thinking about what would be the ultimate Norwegian voyage," he said. "For many Norwegians, this is the most important trip of their lives... which tells the story of their coastline and shows its fantastic scenery."

To follow the voyage live, click on: http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/direkte/nrk2/

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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American freed from Dubai jail after handcuff case (Reuters)

DUBAI (Reuters) – A U.S. citizen who initially faced as much as seven years in prison for stealing police handcuffs was freed after spending 28 days in a Dubai jail, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

Adam Foster, 30, was arrested in February when customs officers spotted the handcuffs in his baggage at Dubai airport as he was leaving. Foster said he found the handcuffs on the ground at a shopping mall parking lot.

"He had been accused of stealing, then given a month-long jail term and released when his sentence was up," said police spokesman Saeed Amin. "The law is the law."

Foster's lawyer had said police accused the American of stealing the handcuffs from a police officer when he was questioned and released in a separate case. The latter was reported to be connected to alcohol possession.

Foster told a local newspaper his experience in the UAE jail "wasn't as bad" as he thought it would be.

"The guards were fine, but the food was awful," he was quoted as saying by the National newspaper.

(Reporting by Nour Merza; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Man accused of planting spyware to photograph women (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A 20-year-old California man was arrested on Wednesday, accused of planting spyware on dozens of computers to secretly photograph women in a state of undress, police said.

Trevor Harwell was taken into custody at his home in Fullerton, where detectives found hundreds of thousands of the pictures on his computer, Fullerton Police Spokesman Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said.

Harwell is accused of installing the program, which gave him remote access to the user's computer and webcam, while working as a technician for a local computer repair company, Goodrich said.

"Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women. Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes," Goodrich said.

Harwell then allegedly stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.

Police say they began investigating Harwell after a Fullerton resident contacted authorities over a suspicious message on his daughter's computer.

The message mimicked a system error advising her of a problem with an "internal sensor" and advised: "If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

Goodrich said many users who got a similar message took their laptops into the bathroom while they showered, where Harwell allegedly photographed them undressing or naked.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb. Edited by Peter Bohan)

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Juror jailed for Facebook contempt (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – A juror who contacted a defendant through the Facebook social networking website, causing a multi-million pound trial to collapse, was jailed for eight months on Thursday in a British legal first.

Joanne Fraill, 40, was the first person in Britain to be convicted of contempt of court involving the internet, and the Solicitor General said her case should serve as a warning to other jurors.

"I hope it will act as a deterrent," Edward Garnier told reporters, saying it had been in the public interest to prosecute.

"It's important that the integrity of our justice system and the integrity of our jury system is maintained and preserved and seen to be so."

Fraill admitted at London's High Court to using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a female defendant who had been acquitted in an ongoing drug trial in the northern English city of Manchester last year.

She also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart's boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating.

Taxpayers were left picking up a bill of 6 million pounds ($10 million) after the judge was forced to discharge the jury when Fraill's actions came to light when Sewart told her lawyer.

Fraill, who the court heard had contacted Sewart because she empathized with her, put her head on the table and sobbed uncontrollably as her jail term was announced.

Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge, the head of the judiciary, said in a written ruling she was "a woman of good character" and had not been involved in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

But he said her actions had been flagrant breaches of orders made by the trial judge and also warned that a jail sentence for a juror committing similar contempt was "virtually inevitable."

Sewart was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after being found guilty of contempt, the Press Association reported.

"I really feel for the woman," Sewart told reporters.

The use of the internet by jurors has already derailed several cases in countries including the United States.

A Reuters Legal analysis conducted last year found that jurors' forays on the internet had resulted in dozens of mistrials, appeals and overturned verdicts in the preceding two years alone. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/08/internet-jurors-idUSN0816547120101208)

Solicitor General Garnier said he did not think the internet made such cases more likely or jeopardize the jury system.

"One doesn't need to get too hung up about the magic of the internet. Jurors have been able to gossip with their neighbors, be influenced by their friends and go to the public library to look up things," he said.

"Whether you communicate by Facebook, whether you research on the internet, whether you talk over your garden fence ... you must understand when you take an oath as a member of a jury, when you disobey that oath ... and it is discovered, you may very well be held in contempt."

(Editing by Steve Addison)

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Oregon votes to outlaw sale of suicide kits (Reuters)

PORTLAND, Ore (Reuters) – Sales of suicide kits, like the do-it-yourself asphyxiation hood used by a man to kill himself late last year, could soon be outlawed in the state of Oregon.

The state's House of Representative passed the bill on Monday to ban the products. It must now be considered in the state Senate, which passed similar legislation in May.

Sponsors say the bill would in no way impinge on a landmark 1997 state law legalizing physician-assisted suicides for terminally ill individuals in Oregon.

Washington is the only other state with such a statute on the books.

The newly passed Oregon bill was sparked by notoriety surrounding an elderly California woman who sells self-asphyxiation kits through a mail-order business, and the December suicide of one of her customers from Eugene, Oregon, 29-year-old Nicholas Klonoski.

Sharlotte Hydorn, 91, a retired science teacher and great-grandmother who lives near San Diego, says her product is intended to help people with incurable, fatal illnesses end their lives with dignity in their own homes.

The kits, which sell for $60 including shipping, consist of a plastic hood that closes around the neck and tubing that connects the hood to a tank of helium or other inert gas the patients supply themselves.

Critics, including Klonoski's brother, have faulted Hydorn for not screening potential buyers of her kits, which they say she peddles indiscriminately to customers who may be emotionally fragile, rather than terminally ill.

Klonoski's family said he suffered from depression but was otherwise healthy when he used one of Hydorn's kits to take his own life around Christmas time.

"We don't want somebody coming into Oregon making a profit off this kind of thing," Representative Jeff Barker, a Democrat and sponsor of the bill, told Reuters.

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, a Democrat and former emergency room physician, has taken no position on the bill, a spokeswoman said.

The bill would make it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a person to sell "any substance or object that is capable of causing death to another person for the purpose of assisting the other person to commit suicide."

Supporters stressed the measure would leave intact Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, which allows physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients, though the patients must be physically capable of administering the drug to themselves.

State records show that 525 Oregonians have ended their lives under the statute since 1997.

Hydorn has said sales of her product, which she calls "exit kits," jumped sharply as a result of media attention stemming from Klonoski's death and reaction to it in Oregon. She said much of her recent business has come from Oregon.

Armed federal agents raided her home last month and seized cartons of documents, computers and sewing machines under a search warrant Hydorn said accused her of conspiracy, mail fraud, tax evasion and the "sale of (an) adulterated or misbranded medical device."

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)

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Atheists sue over bus ads on God-free lifestyle (Reuters)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) – A coalition of atheists is accusing Little Rock's city bus line of violating their rights to free speech in a fight to place ads on public buses praising a God-free lifestyle.

The Central Arkansas Coalition of Reason alleged in a lawsuit that the Central Arkansas Transit Authority and its advertising agency are discriminating against the group because they're being required to pay tens of thousands of dollars to put $5,000 worth of ads on 18 buses.

The ads would read: "Are you good without God? Millions are."

Other groups, including churches, have not been required to pay the fee, which amounts to $36,000 in insurance in case of an attack on the buses by angry Christians, according to the lawsuit.

The insurance was requested by the transit agency's advertising firm, On The Move Advertising, officials said.

Because a handful of similar ads had been vandalized in other states, the ad agency required the payment for insurance reasons, said Jess Sweere, an attorney representing the transit authority.

"To my knowledge, OTMA has not requested this in the past because no other advertiser told them their ads were vandalized in other markets," Sweere told Reuters.

Sweere said the transit authority was all set to accept the ads, but that the advertising firm raised the concerns that lead to the insurance requirement. Negotiations were still going on when the lawsuit was filed last week against the transit agency and the ad firm.

"We were planning to run the ads as soon as the contract was worked out," Sweere told Reuters.

An attorney for the ad agency did not return calls seeking comment.

LeeWood Thomas, a spokesman for the atheist group, quoted an email from the advertising agency obtained by the coalition that read: "Arkansas is the buckle of the Bible Belt and I can easily envision zealots or upstanding citizens with a strong faith acting out."

Thomas said it's clear his group is being punished for the actions of others.

"The insurance money needed from us basically says CATA and On The Move trust the atheists in this community more so than the religious, otherwise the churches that advertise would have that extra insurance premium added to their total cost," Thomas said.

The coalition is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction forcing the bus company to accept the ads while the suit moves forward.

The transit authority and its advertising agency were served with the lawsuit on Monday. They have 21 days to respond.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Arkansas group by UnitedCoR, a Washington-based national organization that focuses on organizing local atheist and agnostic groups into coalitions and funding their bus and billboard ad campaigns.

UnitedCoR has placed such ads throughout the United States since 2008.

Out of 36 markets where ad campaigns have run, four have been vandalized, including bus ads in Detroit last year, according to UnitedCoR's website.

Last year, UnitedCoR placed ads on outdoor billboards and buses in Fayetteville, Arkansas, without incident.

In 2009, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, a group of atheists who are also involved in the bus ad campaign, successfully sued the state of Arkansas to erect a 'Winter Solstice' display on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol near a nativity scene.

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Jerry Norton)

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"Sexist" skirt rule remains in limbo (Reuters)

SINGAPORE, Jun (Reuters) – Badminton's controversial 'skirt rule' has not been scrapped but is merely in limbo while officials wait for more consultation after initial feedback deemed it sexist, the governing body told Reuters Thursday.

A new Badminton World Federation (BWF) code had required all female players to wear skirts or dresses in major tournaments in order to "to ensure attractive presentation of badminton," but the rule has not been implemented after an outcry.

This week's Singapore Open had been slated as the first tournament to implement the rule, but marketing manager for the BWF's Super Series S.Selvam said a decision was in limbo.

"The rule has been deferred until we get another proposal from the women's commission," Selvam said at the city state's Indoor Stadium.

"There was a lot of feedback from players. But a lot of the feedback actually came from the public saying that it was too sexist," he continued.

The legislation -- that stipulates female players must wear a skirt during competition even if they also wear shorts -- is to be reassessed in December.

"What was decided was to get the women's commission and the ethnic scholarship to gather feedback from manufacturers, players and other interested parties, and to come up with another proposal for the best dress code for female and male players," Selvam added.

(Editing by Ossian Shine)

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Lightning strike lands 77 cadets in hospital (Reuters)

JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – A lightning strike at a southern Mississippi military base sent 77 cadets to a hospital on Wednesday.

The cadets, enrolled in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, were admitted after a bolt struck during a severe thunderstorm about 2 p.m., a base spokeswoman said.

Two cadets were transported by ambulance and the rest by bus, and all were "very responsive and in stable condition," Mississippi Army National Guard Major Deidre Musgrave told Reuters.

She said they were taken to the hospital for precautionary evaluation, but could not give any information about the injuries sustained.

The cadets are stationed for two weeks at Camp Shelby, where a simulated forward operating base prepares them for the conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Musgrave said.

(Reporting by Meryl Dakin; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Bohan)

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Bald eagles attack post office at Alaska port (Reuters)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A pair of bald eagles nesting near the U.S. Post Office in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, has taken to dive-bombing customers, in one case drawing blood, authorities said on Tuesday.

The eagles are raising newly hatched chicks for the second consecutive year in a nest on a bluff by the post office.

And for the second consecutive year, they have been trying to chase off people -- apparently unaware that the U.S. Postal Service uses a stylized eagle as its logo.

Two people were attacked last week, and one of the eagles swooped down on a patron on Monday, Alaska State Wildlife Troopers spokesman Sergeant Robin Morrisett said.

One of the eagles managed to scratch up its victim, said Morrisett, who is based on Unalaska Island. "I guess it actually drew blood," he said.

Authorities have posted signs and advised people to be careful about their surroundings, but there are no plans to move the nests or fight back against the eagles, he said.

Bald eagles have a history of confronting people at the post office and elsewhere on the island, Morrisett said, adding that recently an eagle swooped very close to him before returning to its nest.

"It had a fish in its talons," he said.

Bald eagles have never been protected in Alaska under the Endangered Species Act because their populations here have been too healthy to warrant listing.

But, as the national bird of the United States, they are protected under special federal laws.

"It's extremely difficult, unless there's clear danger to human life, to move a nest while it's still occupied," said Bruce Woods, an Anchorage-based spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The behavior in Dutch Harbor is typical of the species, Woods said. Bald eagles tend to be very protective of their young until chicks are able to fly, a milestone generally accomplished at the end of the summer, he said.

There is not much that residents can do about overly bold bald eagles other than to post warning signs, take steps to avoid the fierce birds and wear hats, Woods said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jerry Norton)

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Agents seize 159 pounds of iguana meat (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Customs agents have seized 159 pounds of iguana meat at the Mexican border, hidden in coolers of fish, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The coolers full of iguana meat, worth an estimated $4,500, were found in a vehicle being driven across the border by a 37-year-old man, Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Jackie Wasiluk said.

Wasiluk said she couldn't speculate on the origins of the iguana meat or why the man, a U.S. citizen who was not identified by authorities, would be bringing it into the country.

"There could be a number of reasons but one of the main ones that comes to mind is that there are parts of the world where people do eat iguana meat as a delicacy," she said.

Customs officers contacted U.S. Fish and Wildlife enforcement agents, who took possession of the iguana meat and charged the suspect with violating the Convention on International Trade of endangered species.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Cursed number "39" haunts Afghan car owners (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's booming car sales industry has been thrown into chaos by a growing aversion to the number "39," which almost overnight has become an unlikely synonym for pimp and a mark of shame in this deeply conservative country.

Drivers of cars with number plates containing 39, bought before the once-harmless double digits took on their new meaning, are mocked and taunted across Kabul.

"Now even little kids say 'look, there goes the 39'. This car is a bad luck, I can't take my family out in it," said Mohammad Ashraf who works for a United Nations project.

Other "39" owners flew into a rage or refused to speak when asked whether their car was a burden.

No one is quite sure why the number became so contaminated so fast, but Kabul gossip blames a pimp in neighboring Iran, which shares a common language with much of Afghanistan.

His flashy car had a 39 in its number plate, the story goes, so he was nicknamed "39" and the tag spread.

The shunning of 39 comes just weeks after drivers raced to remove rainbow decorations that were spotted on imported cars and became fashionable until conservative Afghans learnt they were also gay pride symbols.

Dealers say thousands of dollars of stock is now sitting unwanted in their yards, with even a prime condition vehicle almost unsaleable if its plates bear the now-hated numerals.

Salesman Mohammad Jawed's concerns about a "39" Toyota corolla he bought months ago for $10,000 are typical.

"No one wants to buy this car anymore, even though I would sell it now for $6,000 now," he said despairingly.

COINCIDENCE OR GREED "39?"

The head of the union of car dealers in Kabul, Najibullah Amiri, blames corrupt police officers for fanning the trend.

The issue has gained prominence just as number plates for Afghan cars -- which carry five digits -- rolled over from the series that starts with 38, to a new series that starts with 39.

Amiri said officials at the police traffic department charge buyers between $200 and $500 to change a "39" number plate for a new car to something less offensive.

"It is a scheme by the police traffic department to earn money from buyers," he told Reuters in his office in a dusty car sales lot in the western outskirts of Kabul.

Akbar Khan, deputy chief executive of Kabul's Traffic Police rejects the charge of corruption and blames the capital's residents for taking something unimportant too seriously.

"This was stirred up by the residents of Herat and passed on to Kabul. I think it's nonsense," Khan told Reuters. Herat is a bustling city near the Iranian border, and an auto import hub.

He admitted however that the aversion to 39 has affected the registration of new cars, mandatory before imported vehicles can take to the crowded streets of Kabul.

"Before the 39 (series began), we issued 70 to 80 registration plates to customers each day, but nowadays there are only two or three coming in," Khan said.

One of those brave souls said he was pushing ahead in the hopes that the prejudice would be confined to Kabul.

"Despite warnings from my friends to avoid 39, I have to get my new car registered," said Mohammad Zaher, a man with a bushy beard who said he was unconcerned by Kabul prejudice.

"I drive this car in a different province and there people don't know what 39 is."

(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Miral Fahmy)

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Elderly woman uses AIDS threat to rob Colorado bank: police (Reuters)

DENVER (Reuters) – A woman robbed a Colorado bank by passing a note saying she would infect a teller with AIDS if the clerk didn't hand over money, police said on Friday.

Jeff Satur, spokesman for the Longmont, Colorado police department, said detectives are searching for a pale woman between the ages of 55 and 75 with a "boney build."

Satur said a woman, who was wearing a train conductor's cap and a gray sweat shirt, walked into a Wells Fargo bank inside a Safeway grocery store on Thursday night and handed a note to a teller.

"She indicated she had AIDS and would give it to a teller if she didn't cooperate," Satur said.

The woman coughed frequently into a blue bandana during the robbery, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Satur said.

Police and the FBI released still photographs of the robbery and are reviewing additional photographs and surveillance video from the bank's parking lot to try and identify the suspect.

She is described as about 5-feet 6 inches tall, and weighing between 130 and 150 pounds.

No weapon was displayed during the robbery and no one was injured, police said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jerry Norton)

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Children's author ejected from plane for bad language (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – A New York children's author who used a curse word in exasperation during a plane delay at a U.S. airport was ejected from the aircraft for disruptive behavior.

Robert Sayegh, 37, said Atlantic Southeast Airlines overreacted to his salty language when it summoned police aboard to escort him off the Sunday evening flight at Detroit Metro Airport.

"The f-word is not a nice word to use," he acknowledged in a telephone interview, adding he was complaining to himself rather than snapping at anyone in particular.

"I really didn't think I was being that loud."

Sayegh, who is also a television producer, was catching a connecting flight home after attending a relative's wedding in Kansas City, Missouri.

He was, by his own account, feeling tired. The plane was not taking off. The explanation that there was a problem with the overhead compartments did little to soothe his irritation, he said. And so, to no one in particular, he wondered aloud, using coarse language, what was taking so long.

"I said the f-word," Sayegh said.

Perhaps, he recalled, he said it twice. A flight attendant seated near Sayegh took offense. Soon he was being led off the plane by police.

"I didn't direct it at him," Sayegh said, referring to the flight attendant. "The only reason he heard me was he was sitting in his seat behind me."

Atlantic Southeast Airlines said in a statement that it was investigating the incident aboard Flight 5136, and declined to offer further details.

The airline confirmed that a passenger was removed and then booked onto another flight back to New York a couple of hours later.

"We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused," the airline statement said.

Sayegh apologized for offending anyone with his language. "I asked the people around me if I was being rude and they said 'No.' If I was this loud disruptive passenger then I'm sure everyone would have been aware of it."

Sayegh said he would complain to the airline.

"The ironic part is I'm putting a children's book out in August so this wasn't the kind of press I was looking for," he added, saying there are no obscenities in the book.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

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Dinosaur auction features fighting pair of skeletons (Reuters)

DALLAS (Reuters) – Natural history buffs with Tyrannosaurus-sized bank accounts got a chance to ante up on Sunday when an unusually large collection of fully assembled, museum-quality dinosaur skeletons was put up for auction.

The featured stars of the Heritage Auctions bidding were a "fighting pair" of dinosaur skeletons that sold to a museum for $2.75 million, and an enormous, 19-foot-long triceratops that fetched $657,250 from a private collector.

The Dallas auction included more than 200 items, including meteorites, minerals and other fossils.

The fighting dinosaurs -- an allosaurus and a stegosaurus -- were offered together because of their discovery in a Wyoming quarry with the jaw of the allosaurus wrapped around the leg of the stegosaurus, leading to speculation that the two were engaged in a predator-prey battle.

Heritage Auctions declined to disclose which museum picked up the pair, though the organization did say the museum was outside the United States.

"I'm ecstatic that 'the fighting pair' found such a great home," David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. "These are important and iconic Jurassic-era specimens, which science did not even know existed together at the same time, and now they will be going to a final destination where the public will get to enjoy them and where they will be of maximum benefit to science."

Collectors and museum benefactors were able to bid in person and online.

Hundreds of people showed up at Dallas' Fair Park to catch a glimpse of the rare and unusually large collection of dinosaur skeletons and other artifacts.

Paul Garner of Dallas came on Sunday with an entourage of family and friends.

"We heard about it from a friend, so we came to look," the day before the auction, he said. "We came back for a second look and with better cameras."

While some specimens were being offered for re-sale, the allosaurus and stegosaurus were on the market for the first time.

Paleontologist Henry Galiano, whose company unearthed the allosaurus and stegosaurus in Wyoming's Dana Quarry in 2007, said the pair was put up for auction to raise money to continue research and the search for new specimens.

Dinosaur skeletons have held the public's fascination since they were first put on display over 150 years ago. Searching for and excavating such fossils is still a tedious, labor-intensive process that has seen little technological advancement since the 19th century, Galiano said.

Yet, interest in the "bones business" is increasing, and there are more expeditions worldwide than ever before.

"I think it was probably the film 'Jurassic Park' that got the public really interested in dinosaurs," Galiano said. Interest was further spurred by the discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, now named Sue, in 1990, he said.

Sue was sold at auction in 1997 for $8.3 million to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, Herskowitz said.

Dinosaur skeletons rarely fetch that much and are considered a relative bargain in the world of collectibles, he said. On Sunday, he said, the triceratops skeleton was offered at an opening bid of $500,000.

"Fossils are cheap compared to fine art," he told Reuters. "It's amazing the millions people will spend on fine art."

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Steve Gorman)

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