For Ohio animals, a spread of doughnuts, hot dogs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — It turns out doughnuts, dog food and Gatorade are bear necessities.

At least those were the preferred foods of Dewey, a 400-pound Asiatic black bear temporarily housed at a state facility in Ohio.

The building holds wild creatures confiscated or surrendered under Ohio's exotic animal law, which was strengthened following the release of dozens of animals including lions and tigers by their suicidal owner in 2011 in Zanesville. Authorities fearing for public safety killed most of the animals in a headline-capturing saga.

At least five alligators and two bears have come through the state's roughly $3 million facility since it opened in February. Ohio's agriculture department then looks for permanent housing for the critters in sanctuaries or zoos.

Groceries and supplies for the hungry boarders have topped $1,025 since the end of May, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

Items included a 20-inch jungle ball for the bears bought online for $225 and five, 5-foot kiddie pools for alligators from Wal-Mart for about $74.

Feeding logs show Dewey and an American black bear named Boo Boo weren't light eaters.

Dewey's meals included chicken breast, nuts, cookies and bagels. Boo Boo, a female who weighed 250 pounds, enjoyed hot dogs, lettuce, corn and fish.

Both bears had poor diets before they arrived. Sixteen-year-old Dewey ate like a teenager, munching on pizza and drinking Mountain Dew.

The state initially got food for the bears through an agreement with the Columbus zoo, though Dewey turned up his nose at the nutritious chow.

"In this particular case, we felt like it was more important to keep them on the food that they liked," said Erica Hawkins, a spokeswoman for Ohio's agriculture department.

State veterinarians eventually worked more wholesome items into their diets, she said.

Both bears left this month for a sanctuary in Colorado. The department expects to see more creatures after Jan. 1, when Ohio's law allows officials to take away dangerous wild animals if their owners don't meet state requirements to keep them.

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With Pope in town, ribald Rio a land of outdoor confessionals

By Paulo Prada

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Ah, Rio.

The sun. The sand. The absolution.

Often, tourists and travelers leave this hedonist hotspot with a feeling of guilt. This week, however, thousands of young visitors are dropping to their knees and asking for forgiveness.

Never mind that they might still fall prey to the temptations of the famous nightclubs, bars and beaches of the coastal metropolis, let alone the allure of the many other young pilgrims gathered here for a week long visit by Pope Francis.

As part of the ongoing World Youth Day gathering, a Catholic confab that has attracted more than 1 million faithful to Rio de Janeiro, the Church is making it easy for sinners to seek forgiveness at 100 makeshift outdoor confessionals. The white plywood structures, in a regimented array resembling a tent camp, await the contrite at two focal points of the gathering.

Shaped like the mountain atop which the city's Christ the Redeemer monument looms large, the confessionals are staffed by polyglot priests from around the world. On Friday, Pope Francis himself is scheduled to tend to a few penitents at the Quinta da Boa Vista, a park north of central Rio where the confessionals sit amid hot-dog stands and popcorn vendors.

Confession is a central rite of Catholicism.

By confessing their sins to priests, Catholics not only discuss and reflect upon wrongdoing, they receive a penance through which they seek contrition and make themselves worthy of mass and other rituals.

"It's a way to get closer to God and we as priests have to facilitate the process," said Juan Gabriel Guerra, a Mexican priest now living in the U.S. state of Georgia and who this week is hearing confessions in Spanish and English.

INHERENT CONFLICT

The practice reflects the inherent conflict that most religions grapple with: People may really want to be good, but they have a mighty hard time toeing the line.

Francis himself, like many other Christian leaders, frequently counts himself among the sinners. A Christian, Francis said during a June mass at the Vatican, must "make this confession to himself and to the Church" in order to "understand the beauty of salvation."

Despite heavy rains and temperatures dipping well below the seasonal average, hundreds of young Catholics have waited in line to seek salvation this week. At the Rio park, signs along the muddy lawn where the confessionals sit segregate pilgrims by the language in which they choose to confess - from the local Portuguese to more distant Polish, German and French.

"This is way cooler than confession in a church," says Elise Johnson, a 20-year-old design student from Seattle, who last confessed eight months ago. She was inspired to do so here because of the energy of the assembled youth and the ambience of the outdoors, she added.

For the priests, who are working two-hour shifts seated behind the white screen where each penitent kneels, the occasion presents an opportunity to harness the enthusiasm of the gathering, especially because many Catholics have trouble finding time to confess regularly. The problem is compounded by a shortage of priests worldwide, making schedules at confessionals in some local parishes a hit-or-miss affair.

"It should be something natural, something you want to do," said Ademir Alves, a Brazilian priest from the central state of Goias. "Each confession helps you find your way back to God."

Noelia Meza, a 28-year-old Argentine, said she decided to re-embrace Catholicism only recently, after a breakup with a longtime boyfriend and some trouble with a part-time job.

"I just feel the need to share what I've done," she said.

She emerged from the confessionals just past dark on Wednesday, after most of the priests and other remorseful had already filed out and walked toward a Catholic rock concert on a nearby stage. Her long lapse away from the Church, she said, means that she has rarely bared her soul since her first confession two decades ago.

"I still have a lot to tell," Meza explained, noting a long mental list she has of her sins, from the biggest misdeeds down to the minor. She declined to detail her list.

Some said the confessionals are opportune considering the extracurricular activities some of the pilgrims are bound to enjoy while in Rio.

"There's some partying, too," said Estevão Ostrowsky, a 23-year-old fashion student from the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. "These are really convenient."

(Editing by Todd Benson and Cynthia Osterman)

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Pakistan pulls 'immoral' condom commercial off air

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has pulled a condom commercial off the air following more than 1,000 complaints that its broadcast was immoral during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The commercial features a couple wondering how their neighbor managed to land a glamorous wife, only to have the beaming husband reveal his secret - a packet of "Josh" condoms. "Josh" translates as "excitement" in Urdu.

"People who complained didn't want such an immoral advertisement on television during the holy month ... They wanted us to take action," said Fakharuddin Mughar, a spokesman for the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.

The advertisement had been voluntarily pulled by the Pakistan Broadcasting Association, he added.

Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, where many people scrupulously observe the holy month of fasting and prayer.

It has a long history of banning items considered offensive. The YouTube video-sharing website has been banned for nearly a year after complaints that it carried material offensive to Muslims.

In another example, women in northwest Pakistan were banned last week from shopping unaccompanied during Ramadan, lest their presence distract men.

(Reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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Pa. judge fines woman who cursed at jury selection

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman has been fined $500 for cursing because she was frustrated with being picked to serve on a jury.

The Erie Times-News (http://bit.ly/1bQA4hF ) reports Erie County Judge Ernest DiSantis levied the fine Wednesday on Kathleen Port.

DiSantis told the Erie woman she was "totally out of line" and explained jury service is a duty of citizenship.

Port, whose phone number is unlisted, apologized several times but was fined nonetheless.

She told the judge she was upset because jury service would make her miss work and cost her income.

DiSantis says Port could have claimed a hardship on her jury service questionnaire, but did not.

Port was also thrown off the jury, which was picked to hear an illegal weapons case.

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Information from: Erie Times-News, http://www.goerie.com

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3 elderly sisters, sister-in-law reunited

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Three elderly sisters and their sister-in-law are sharing their common life experiences once again after being reunited at a Duluth care center.

At 91 years young, Florence Strom, is the baby among the sisters. Dorothy Wotczak is 101 and sister Lillian Lund is 104. Their sister-in-law, Theresa Anderson, is 93. The sisters are again living under one roof. They're sharing stories and enjoying each other's company at St. Eliguis Health Center in Duluth.

Wotczak tells WDIO-TV (http://bit.ly/14hZPEo ) that the sisters share memories of dance halls they would frequent on Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday. Strom says the women were very close growing up and had a lot of fun. Yes, Strom says they had their disagreements, but they always knew they shared a family bond and loved each other.

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Information from: WDIO-TV, http://www.wdio.com

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Washington's corpse flower ends its stinky reign

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For weeks, gawkers lined up at the U.S. Botanic Garden, hoping to be among the lucky ones to catch the show when a giant-sized corpse flower bloomed for the first time in seven years.

Its legendary stench was part of the attraction. On Sunday afternoon, when the 8-foot-tall (2.4-metre) Titan Arum plant finally began opening its petals, a smell almost strong enough to stop traffic lured tourists inside from the sweltering National Mall.

Since it went on display July 11 as a 4-foot-tall sprig, the corpse flower has attracted over 120,000 visitors, about one-tenth of the garden's annual number in less than two weeks.

It proved to be an unexpected hit during Washington's summer tourist season. For about 48 hours, long lines of visitors tried to inch close enough to get a whiff of a terrible smell that in the natural world attracts carrion eaters like dung beetles and flies.

The Botanic Garden's Laura Condeluci said most of the smell had abated by Tuesday, but the flower had attracted so much attention, it was continuing to draw throngs.

On social media, the flower - nicknamed Mortimer - chronicled its moments of glory and celebrity visitors on a Twitter feed at @DCTitanArum.

"As of this afternoon, both @DarrellIssa and @jaredpolis will have visited me," Mortimer tweeted on Tuesday, referring to a California Republican and a Colorado Democrat in the House of Representatives. "I have brought bipartisanship to DC. Almost time to retire."

Mortimer bloomed on Instagram, with #corpseflower a popular hashtag. There was live streaming video at http://www.usbg.gov/return-titan ("Due to high traffic, you may experience some difficulty with the web stream," the Botanic Garden warned).

A time-lapse video of the blossom opening was at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMQmGGVvWj4#at=15 .

Condeluci said the Titan Arum looks for pollinators in the evening, emitting heat and a smell of rotting flesh as the sun starts to fade. The smell, which dissipates in the daytime, generally lasts 24 to 48 hours.

"The heat helps generate the scent upward ... (so) that something up to maybe a mile away will smell it and come running," she said by telephone.

"For us, that's fabulous, that people are excited about a plant," she said. "We think it's spectacular to look at, and a slightly terrible smell. Even if folks can't smell it, it's really dramatic."

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Marilyn Thompson and Eric Beech)

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Pet pig Nemo's lymphoma treatment makes research history

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When George Goldner went to feed his six pet pigs earlier this year, his 730-pound (331-kg) companion Nemo was acting strangely. Nemo had suddenly stopped eating and laid in the mud.

So Goldner loaded Nemo into a trailer and drove more than two hours to Cornell University Hospital for Animals (CUHA) in Ithaca, New York. There he learned his four-year-old Hampshire pig had what doctors believed was the blood cancer B-cell lymphoma.

The hospital's researchers told Goldner they had never seen a pig treated for cancer. But that did not deter Goldner, a self-described animal lover, who asked doctors to devise a way to treat his pig based on their knowledge of cancer in dogs and humans and not worry about costs.

Now, four months after Goldner first rushed to the hospital, Nemo has made history as the first known pig to undergo lymphoma treatment - and successfully - leaving researchers with hope for advancements in treating cancer in large animals.

"Before when large animals were diagnosed with cancer, it was pretty much impossible to treat them," said Emily Barrell, a resident who picked all of Nemo's chemotherapy drugs and delivered them. "Now we have a model to base it on."

Because pigs have necks bigger than many humans, their veins are difficult to access, Barrell said, making it impossible to deliver many of the aggressive drugs needed for chemotherapy.

Doctors at CUHA consulted with researchers in other fields before implanting a vascular access port, which is a small metal port with a silicone cover, directly under Nemo's skin behind his ear.

The port contained a catheter that ran through a jugular vein in his neck, allowing Nemo to receive the sort of cancer treatment administered to dogs and humans.

Nemo is now believed to be in remission, Barrell said, and will return home in September if everything goes according to plan.

Goldner and doctors at CUHA declined to specify how much Nemo's treatment cost. The cost of chemotherapy for an average-sized golden retriever is $4,000-$5,000 from start to finish, Barrell said, and Nemo is seven or eight times the size of that.

"There were two choices: One was to let him die and the other was to give it a shot," Goldner said in an interview. "Now I think (Nemo) is definitely bound to provide some help."

Though some may criticize the cost of treating such large animals, Barrell said it has become common practice for cat and dog owners to pay for cancer treatment, and it is up to owners to decide how much they are willing to pay.

"This is exactly the type of clinical veterinary research we should be doing to treat disease in other animals," said Justin Goodman, director of laboratory investigation at animal rights group PETA.

Nemo's appetite is back and he's treated like a "big star" at CUHA, Goldner said.

"(Nemo) is a really special story about people being innovative and owners being dedicated," Barrell said.

(Reporting By Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Cynthia Osterman)

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German town raises ire for scheme using asylum seekers as porters

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German town has halted a scheme offering asylum seekers 1.05 euros an hour to carry luggage at a station after rail operator Deutsche Bahn refused permission due to a public outcry and criticism that the project harked back to colonial times.

The southern German town of Schwaebisch Gmuend started the scheme on Monday for nine asylum seekers to help passengers get up a steep flight of metal steps erected at the station due to construction work.

The mayor originally said he hoped the program would help the integration of the town's 250 asylum seekers, but pictures of the refugees, mostly from African nations, in bright red T-shirts and straw hats unleashed an outcry.

Complaints about the hourly rate - about eight times below the level German politicians cite for a minimum wage - poured into the mayor's office and sparked a Facebook campaign.

"Having refugees as bag carriers is a shameless exploitation of the people's situation," said far-left Linke lawmaker Ulla Jelpke, who called it "colonial" behavior.

Deutsche Bahn said it had not been aware of the conditions and would pay its own employees their normal rate to do the job.

"The railway cannot support these conditions," the railway said in a statement.

A spokesman for Schwaebisch Gmuend told Reuters the conservative mayor was disappointed at Deutsche Bahn's decision and blamed misplaced political correctness.

"At a first glance, pictures of black people carrying white peoples' suitcases don't look good and conjure up images of neo-colonialism and racism, but this is not the case - the asylum seekers want to do this," said the spokesman.

He added that the 1.05 euros was not a wage as such, as asylum seekers are not allowed to be employed, but is the maximum amount it is possible to give them under the asylum seekers law.

The Bild newspaper quoted one asylum seeker from Gambia, Lamin G, as saying: "It was a good job, I could help people."

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Man swims across Detroit River, prompts rescue

DETROIT (AP) — A man who wanted to prove he could swim across the Detroit River from Canada to the U.S. after a night of drinking ended up prompting an international rescue operation.

John Morillo told The Windsor Star that Monday night's swim from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, was "really stupid" and said in retrospect he shouldn't have done it. He was cited for being intoxicated in a public place and released from jail Tuesday.

"I was drinking, but I wasn't really drunk," Morillo, 47, of Windsor, said Tuesday. "The thing is, I've been telling people I'm going to swim across the river for years and they're like 'yah, yah, blah, blah, you can't make it.' So, I don't know, last night I just decided it was the time to go."

Morillo said he regrets causing problems for authorities, including Windsor police and Coast Guard crews from the U.S. and Canada. Three boats and a helicopter responded, The Detroit News reported, and authorities warn the river's current makes a dangerous place to swim.

"As soon I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like 'oh, this is really stupid,'" Morillo told The Windsor Star.

Police in Windsor initially responded around 11:30 p.m., when a neighbor of Morillo called to say she had lost sight of him about a half-hour earlier.

Morillo made it across to Detroit, getting out of the water near downtown's Renaissance Center, and was swimming back when he was found about 12:50 a.m. Tuesday by the U.S. Coast Guard. During his stop on the Detroit side of the river he said people wanted to take his picture.

"There was one woman, she said she was from Windsor and she thought I was crazy," he said. She was right."

Morillo said he was told that he'll also likely be fined for swimming in a shipping channel, which could be $5,000 to $25,000.

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Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ makes cake taste better, study says

It's not just the cake but how you eat it, a new study claims. In this file photo, Oliver Hardy prepares to blow …Science has once again stepped up to the plate, in a manner of speaking. A new study says that singing “Happy Birthday” actually makes cake taste better.

The study, published in the upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, finds that the ritual of singing before eating a slice of cake, or any other dessert, increases one's appreciation of the treat. The result is that the food ends up tasting better, at least in our minds.

The “Happy Birthday to You” song hasn’t even been around for 100 years, though the Guinness World Records does call it the most recognizable song in the English language. So, is it the song itself or the ritual?

University of Minnesota psychologist Kathleen Vohs found that this ritual even extends beyond singing to include such practices as how one opens a candy bar wrapper.

Do you have any personal routines when it comes to eating your food? For example, do you treat yourself to a doughnut on Friday mornings at work? Vohs found that personalized eating habits like this, carried out in “repeated, episodic and fixed behaviors” result in us enjoying that doughnut all the more because of the anticipation built up in our minds.

“Whenever I order an espresso, I take a sugar packet and shake it, open the packet and pour a teeny bit of sugar in, and then taste,” Vohs told the Daily Mail. “It's never enough sugar, so I then pour about half of the packet in. The thing is, this isn't a functional ritual, I should just skip right to pouring in half the packet.”

In other words, her own personalized consumption habit is an integral part of her enjoyment of that espresso.

But there’s good news as well for those watching their waistlines: The ritualistic satisfaction can be applied to any food, including healthier options like fruits and vegetables.

In the experiments, Vohs asked control groups to eat chocolate bars in two different manners. The first group was told to methodically eat half of the bar, wait for a set period of time, then unwrap and eat the other half. Those in the second group of testers were allowed to randomly eat the chocolate bar however they preferred. Vohs found that the first control group reported a higher satisfaction level and were even willing to pay more money for the chocolate bars.

Her second significant finding was that this ritualistic enjoyment applied only to our own personal behaviors. Meaning that Vohs wouldn’t likely get any enjoyment out of watching someone else incrementally add sugar to her espresso. In fact, she might find the process frustrating, since the logical part of her brain knows that she simply wants more sugar added.

This isn't Vohs' first interesting study. In 2010, she was involved in a study that found that handling money actually helps reduce pain.

Going forward, Vohs said she would next like to try applying the rituals to other habits outside of food. “We are thinking of getting patients to perform rituals before a surgery and then measuring their pain post-operatively and how fast they heal,” she said.

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Being rude to French president no longer an offense

PARIS (Reuters) - Being rude to the French president is no longer an offence after parliament agreed on Thursday to amend legislation dating back to 1881 in favor of freedom of speech.

Whereas before any rude remark risked an automatic fine for "offending the head of state," the president is now reduced to the same category as ministers and parliamentarians and would need to have a judge prove there had been slander or defamation.

The change came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in March that France violated a demonstrator's right to freedom of expression when it fined him for holding a banner up to former President Nicolas Sarkozy reading: "Get lost, jerk."

That slogan has been infamous in France since Sarkozy used the same words in 2008 to insult a man in a crowd who refused to shake his hand, and the court judged that left-wing activist Herve Eon was being satirical with his protest banner.

It said his conviction and 30-euro ($40) fine were out of proportion to his protest and that his right to freedom of expression had been violated.

Anyone found by a judge to have slandered the president still runs the risk of a fine of up to 45,000 euros.

President Francois Hollande has so far shown a thick skin, however, as critics have given him a string of unkind nicknames like "Flanby", a brand of wobbly caramel pudding or "Mr. Little Jokes".

($1 = 0.7555 euros)

(Reporting by Emile Picy; Writing by Catherine Bremer; editing by Mark John)

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Meet the couple that got married thanks to Pinterest

A couple were recently engaged via the social media site Pinterest (GMA)

Lori Brokaw-Stout has been “obsessed” with the photo-sharing, social media site Pinterest since she first launched an account a little more than two years ago. But she had no idea that Pinterest would be the place where her boyfriend Brian Stout would make his wedding proposal.

“My Pinterest obsession is kind of a running joke amongst friends,” Brokaw-Stout told Yahoo! News in a phone interview. “I check it on my phone when I’m waiting in line at the grocery store, pretty much anywhere I have a moment of downtime.”

Of course, Pinterest is primarily used by women. So, Brokaw-Stout was surprised when her then-boyfriend Brian said he had created an account and suggested she follow him. She did so and was surprised to find that his first (and only) pin was an eight-foot long marriage proposal.

“It said, ‘Will you marry me? Re-pin if yes.’ It was a perfect way for him to propose to me and I did not see it coming,” she said.

The actual proposal was more elaborate. Brian had secretly recruited Lori’s friends and family to hold up signs, which read, “Say YES!” to a series of different topics related to the couple.

The couple married June 2 and Lori said everything has been going great for them although there has been an unexpected bit of fallout.

“It served him right because he’s now just as addicted as I am,” she said. “We’ll scroll through pins and read them to each other.”

Their marriage is ultimately another example of how social media sites are changing the ways individuals interact with each other online. Less than 10 years ago, it was still largely a social taboo to admit you met your partner via an online dating site. Whereas now, statistics suggest that around 40 million people in the U.S. alone use the Internet to search for potential mates.

Since it was first launched in 2010, Pinterest has grown to an average of more than 10 million daily users. In the 2012 presidential election, both Ann Romney and Michelle Obama created accounts to document the campaign. And while a 2012 study found that more than 80 percent of the site’s users are women, the number of men using Pinterest does seem to be growing.

For example, Richard Wong told Yahoo! News he used the site to help plan a first date with his girlfriend.

“I wanted to cook her dinner for one of our first dates,” he said. “I’m not a great chef myself.”

Wong says the pair then shared their meal ideas, which served as a catalyst to the relationship.

“She learned a lot about me from my page,” he said. “We have the comfort of knowing our tastes are similar.”

Wong, who works in marketing, says he’s also been using the site to come up with ideas for clothes for work and other subjects that can sometimes prove to be a mystery to men.

“I just tapped into a great market for guys,” he said. “Females are a bit more visually oriented than guys. But the site has helped me think about things that I wouldn’t ordinarily consider, like, how can you cater your outfits if you’re going to work then meeting up with friends afterward?”

And if things start to get too routine for Wong or Brokaw-Stout in their respective relationships, social media might have a solution for that as well.

“I call it my ‘romance board',” Jessica Murfin told Yahoo! News. “My husband and I have been together since high school. So, we use it to come up with date ideas and add a new level of spontaneity to our relationship.”

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Ohio woman's sentence includes Christmases in jail

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A central Ohio judge has ordered a woman to spend the next five Christmases in jail as part of her sentence for issuing state ID cards and driver's licenses to immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Prosecutors say 44-year-old Betina Young — a former license agency employee — accepted payments from applicants to falsify records showing they had verified their immigration status. She has pleaded guilty.

The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/17AzoIw ) that Judge Michael Holbrook put Young on probation Monday for five years — ordering that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation.

If she violates probation, she could go to prison for 15 years.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

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Long backlog for godless wedding services in Ireland

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

(Reuters) - Traditionally Catholic Ireland has allowed an atheist group to perform weddings this year for the first time, and the few people certified to celebrate them are overwhelmed by hundreds of couples seeking their services.

Demand for the Humanist Association of Ireland's secular weddings has surged as the moral authority of the once almighty Catholic Church collapsed in recent decades amid sex abuse scandals and Irish society's rapid secularization.

Until now, those who did not want a religious wedding could have only civil ceremonies. Outside of the registrar's office, only clergy were permitted to perform weddings.

But statistics show rising demand for non-Church weddings. In 1996, 90 percent of Irish weddings were performed by the Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland. But by 2010 that percentage had fallen to 69 percent.

The pent-up demand from those who want more than a civil ceremony in a registry office but reject a religious wedding has created a major backlog for the humanist group's ceremonies director.

Brian Whiteside, initially the only humanist "solemnizer" certified to legally marry couples, was already booked well into next year when the civil registry office agreed in late June to approve 10 others, taking some of the pressure off him.

"It remains very, very busy," Whiteside said. "We're all finding it difficult to keep up with the inquiries. We had 595 new inquiries in the first three months of this year, which in a little country like Ireland is quite a few."

The Irish parliament legalized secular wedding services last December, after a 10-year campaign by the Humanist Association. The law went into effect on January 1. Similar options are also allowed in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland and some U.S. states.

COUPLE GAVE UP ON CATHOLICISM

Brendan Hastings, originally from South Africa, and his Irish bride Suzy Addis had Whiteside preside at their recent humanist wedding in Slane, a village north of Dublin.

Soft modern music accompanied the relaxed ceremony and the main reading was a passage on love from the 1994 novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

"Basically we are both atheists and didn't want a religious ceremony," said Hastings, at 32 a year older than Addis. "Other weddings we have gone to tended to be all about Jesus and we're not into that. We were both raised as Catholics but kind of gave it up."

Whiteside, a retired Dublin businessman, said he began presiding at humanist weddings back when they were simply a symbolic ceremony rather than the official act.

The association also offers strictly secular funerals and naming ceremonies, which have no legal status.

Being the only certified humanist celebrant for the first half of the year, Whiteside was officiating at one or two weddings per week. He was scheduled for about 90 weddings this year and about 50 in 2014.

"It became a sort of second career," he said. "I don't want to make a business out of this, but it means a lot to me."

The recent ruling means the work can now be divided among the other solemnizers - the Irish bureaucratic term for all legally recognized wedding celebrants - living in Dublin, Wicklow, Cork and Galway.

NOT FOR PROFIT

The law says solemnizers cannot work for profit. Whiteside said he usually asks 450 euros per wedding, although it might be more if long distance travel is involved.

"We don't have salaries, so we have to have some kind of income," he said, noting that priests had salaries and used their own churches for weddings.

That price is low compared to other countries. The Dutch Humanist Union sets a base price of 475 euros while rates in Germany and Austria, where humanist weddings cannot replace the official civil ceremony, go from 650 to over 1,000 euros.

Scotland legalized humanist ceremonies in 2005 and saw them jump from 100 that year to 2,846 in 2011. Humanist weddings are now the third most popular choice for Scottish couples after the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church.

(Additional reporting by Cathal MacNaughton in Dublin)

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Fisherman gets 230-lb. tuna despite capsized boat

LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) — A 54-year-old fisherman is safe after his 14-foot boat capsized as he was landing a 230-pound tuna in the ocean off Hawaii.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued Anthony Wichman on Friday after receiving a distress call from his wife.

Wichman was fishing about 10 miles southwest of Port Allen on the island of Kauai (kuh-WEYE') Friday morning when he hooked the Ahi tuna. Coast Guard Lt. Jessica Mickelson tells Hawaii News Now (http://tinyurl.com/ksqfuaf ) that Wichman was able to use his cellphone to call his wife for help.

The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter to rescue Wichman. Friends arrived on another boat and were able to right Wichman's boat. They towed it — and the fish — back to port.

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Rescued Florida sea turtle headed for Las Vegas casino "retirement"

MIAMI (Reuters) - An ailing 320-pound, green sea turtle, believed to be about 50 years old, was packed in a customized FedEx crate to be shipped to Las Vegas on Thursday to give it a better home at a luxury casino.

The turtle, named OD, after a dive charter boat that rescued it in 2008, has been cared for at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital for almost five years. It cannot be released due to an irreparable collapsed lung that left it floating on its side.

Officials at the Turtle Hospital decided OD needed a better home with a larger and more stimulating environment.

The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas offered to give OD a home for his "retirement" at its 1.6-million-gallon aquarium which already houses several sea turtles.

"He's ready now for a forever home ... where he can live out his life," said Turtle Hospital Manager Bette Zirkelbach.

FedEx is providing free air transportation for OD for the 2,400-mile trip to Las Vegas in a specially moisturized and foam-padded crate, accompanied by Zirkelbach and Turtle Hospital founder Richie Moretti.

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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McDonald’s employee still working at 92

At 92, Sara Dappen certainly has earned her retirement years. But this nonagenarian can be found working at the Story City McDonald's in Iowa, and there's a good chance she's the chain’s oldest employee anywhere in the world.

A story in the U.K. newspaper the Sun earlier in the month claimed a North Wales man held the title at 88. But at 92, Dappen has him beat.

Dappen cleans tables and keeps the restaurant neat but, according to local station KCCI, her favorite thing is talking to the customers.

"I thought it was more interesting to keep walking around here than to be walking up and down the street, and this keeps me from sitting,” Dappen, who has worked at the restaurant for five years, told KCCI. Born in 1920, the Iowa resident was part of the 1938 graduating class at Story City High and the 1942 class at Iowa State University, the Daily Mail reports.

Now, she puts on the red uniform of a McDonald’s worker.

"I think it's crazy and she's going to last to be like 110 working at McDonald's," McDonald’s department manager Elizabeth Holmes said.

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Washington D.C. is least honest city in America, study says

Customers walk outside a Honest Tea booth (Yahoo! News)

For the second year in a row, residents of our nation’s capital have proven themselves the most likely to steal a dollar from your pocket. At least, that’s according to one unusual new study, which found Washington, D.C. to be the least honest city or state in the nation.

The makers of Honest Tea conducted the survey, which involved setting up an unmanned booth with bottles of their product on display. Customers were asked to use the honor system and leave $1 for each bottle of tea they took.

In the end, 80 percent of Washingtonians paid for their beverage. But that was still far less than the national average of 92 percent.

“As a company, Honest Tea values transparency,” National Honesty Index spokesman Dan Forman told Yahoo! News. “To touch on this, the company thought creating a light-hearted social experiment that takes a look at honest in America would be a good way to start a conversation about honesty and how society values it. “

And to add to the irony of the experiment, Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman said he had his bike stolen while traveling to the D.C. booth. He said he had even chained the bike up before leaving it for a few hours.

Now, a tea test is far from the final word on a city or state’s total measurement of honesty. But this is not the only study to find D.C. atop some less than ideal rankings. For example, a 2012 study found that workers in D.C. curse on the job more than of their colleagues around the nation .

This is the fourth year that Honest Tea has conducted their little experiment, during which they visited all 50 states and 61 locations in total.

Alabama and Hawaii tied for the most honest states, where 100 percent of customers paid for their tea.

West Virginia was considered the second least honest state, with 85 percent of people paying for their tea.

Still, as Forman notes, a large majority of Americans paid for their drinks even in those so-called least honest states.

“We were delighted to see that people in the U.S. were so honest,” he said. “There is so much negative rhetoric put out there. It’s encouraging to know that in reality, when faced with a choice to do the right thing or steal, 92 percent of people in the U.S. chose to do the right thing.”

Forman says the company will continue to tweak its honesty tests in future years to better measure how people respond to various scenarios testing their responses.

The full state rankings:

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Wash. state man says shooting followed VP's advice

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A Washington state man who fired a shotgun in the air to chase away car prowlers says he was following the advice of Vice President Joe Biden.

Jeffrey Barton, of Vancouver, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Clark County court to a charge of illegally discharging a firearm. The 52-year-old fired the shot Monday when he thought people were breaking into his vehicles.

Outside of court, Barton told KOIN (http://bit.ly/13mpjyH ), "I did what Joe Biden told me to do. I went outside and fired my shotgun in the air."

In an answer to a home defense question in February, the vice president said Americans don't need semi-automatic weapons because a couple of blasts from a shotgun will scare off intruders.

Sheriff's deputies said that' not allowed except in self-defense.

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Royal baby worth his weight in gold to the Firm

By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON (Reuters) - The Firm, as Britain's royal family calls itself, has a new asset.

With the world media in a frenzy over the birth of Prince William and his wife Kate's son, companies from airlines to champagne-makers have jumped on the chance to cash in on the wave of popularity sweeping over the royal family.

From royal potties to blue-cream-filled doughnuts to china commemorative plates, the range of merchandise celebrating the birth of the prince ranges from the obvious to the bizarre.

Economic forecasters have suggested the new prince could boost Britain's austerity-hit economy by as much as 520 million pounds ($780 million) in the short term as well-wishers buy souvenirs, celebrate his arrival, and buy baby products.

But the longer term impact of the latest good news from the House of Windsor is deemed more significant, with the rising popularity of the royals helping underpin the image of Britain abroad while brightening consumer sentiment in a tough economy.

Asset valuation agency Brand Finance said the monarchy was one of Britain's most valuable brands, run professionally like a firm and set to contribute an estimated 1.9 billion pounds to the British economy this year while costing 250 million pounds.

"Whether you agree or disagree with the constitutional principle, there is little doubt that the monarchy adds significant annual earnings and long term economic value to the UK," Brand Finance's Chief Executive David Haigh told Reuters.

"The latest Windsor will be an effective and lucrative ambassador for Brand Britain, making a significant contribution to the task of driving Britain out of the recession. There is a trend in favor of the royal family and they are clearly getting very good advice over marketing and communication."

The estimated benefit of the monarchy to the economy was worked out by valuing intangible assets such as tourism, merchandising, PR value, and royalties.

BRANDING "THE FIRM"

Tourism is Britain's fifth largest industry and the royal family plays a leading role.

Royal ceremonies and events always get worldwide media attention and have helped increase the royals' popularity, such as with William and Kate's spectacular wedding in April 2011 and the queen's Diamond Jubilee last year.

Tradition reigned on Monday with pomp and ceremony around the yet-to-be-named baby's arrival as the birth announcement was pinned to a golden easel inside the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Clarissa Campbell Orr, historian of monarchy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, said Britain's monarchy was a long-lasting brand in that it promoted continuity by combining heritage, tradition and a close relationship with people.

She said the younger royals, led by Prince William and his soldier-playboy brother Harry, had cemented this feeling of continuity. A poll last week showed the popularity of the royal family is back at record levels with 77 percent support for the monarchy.

The royals fell out of public favor for misjudging their reaction to the death of the hugely popular Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles. They were seen as out of touch.

"There are people who have not forgiven Prince Charles for his relationship with Princess Diana but the relationship between William and Kate is unclouded and uncomplicated. It promotes continuity," Orr told Reuters.

"This is a fresh generation. The monarchy has proved that it is adaptable and it's much more media savvy than it used to be."

Haigh said the royal family had received good advice in recent years from public relations and marketing experts on how to re-invent its image, trimming down the number of royals to focus on the younger generation.

"They haven't put a foot wrong in anything they have done recently," Haigh said. "I am neutral about the monarchy as an institution but if you look at the economics, it is almost irrefutable that they are going a good job in helping the British economy."

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Harrison Ford says drone controversy drew him to 'Ender's Game'

Harrison Ford at San Diego Comic-Con (Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)
During an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, Harrison Ford said it was a real life political controversy that drew him to join the cast of the upcoming science fiction film, "Ender's Game."

The hugely popular book on which the film is based follows the adventures of a young boy named Ender who is enlisted by the military to combat a looming military threat.

"I was drawn to the complexity of the moral issues here," Ford said during his second-ever panel at the annual convention. "This book, which was written 28 years ago, imagined a world that has become an everyday reality today: the dilemma of drone warfare."

In the film, Ford portrays a Graff, a grizzled military commander who instructs Ender and other children recruited by the military to become future soldiers. "He is not much Ender's mentor as he is his manipulator," Ford said.

As with drone pilots, the character of Ender controls a fleet of unmanned ships that are sent into battle.

"The manipulation of young people and their specific talents for warfare was something that was really interesting to me," Ford added.

Despite the seriousness of his response, Ford did take a moment to show a lighter side when asked by a fan if his "Star Wars" character Han Solo would have been a good soldier in the world of "Ender's Game."

"I don't think Han Solo would be good in anybody's army, Ford said. "I think he's what we now call an independent contractor."

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Texas contractor razes house, but the wrong one

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A demolition company has mistakenly torn down a three-bedroom home in North Texas rather than the condemned building next door.

David Underwood and his wife placed their Fort Worth house on the market with the intention of moving into the retreat they purchased near the shores of Lake Worth. The lakeside land has been in the family for decades and Underwood bought it from an aunt earlier this year.

But when they stopped by to mow the lawn Saturday, they found the home was gone. A slab of foundation remains.

Fort Worth hired the demolition company to raze the condemned building, and was billed more than $6,000 for the work.

The condemned structure remains standing.

Underwood is seeking a settlement from the city. A city spokesman says officials are investigating.

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60 tons of Eiffel Tower trinkets seized in Paris

By Alexandria Sage

PARIS (Reuters) - Paris police have seized 60 tons of miniature Eiffel Towers that black-market vendors were hoping to sell to tourists.

Paris is one of the world's top destinations, visited by about 29 million tourists a year, but with the holidaymakers comes an influx of bootleg souvenirs, from replica towers to fake Hermes scarves.

Police play a cat and mouse game with the mostly immigrant sellers who flood the top tourist sites, taking business from the authorized vendors and paying no taxes.

Police said on Thursday the tin trinkets, brightly colored and barely 8cm high, were seized on Tuesday from a warehouse near Le Bourget airport north of Paris. A woman of Chinese nationality was in police custody.

Authorities say Chinese gangs, many based in the east of Paris, import the trinkets from China before selling them to other groups who control the sellers.

Up to 300-400 black-market sellers hawk their wares around the Eiffel Tower at the height of the summer season, say police, who circulate flyers to tourists encouraging them not to buy from street sellers.

Police said in a statement they had also raided an office in Paris' Marais district where some 100 black-market sellers per day would buy replica Eiffel Towers to sell on, seizing thousands more models and over 150,000 euros in cash.

However, police are hindered by the inability of over-stretched courts to prosecute the waves of illegal sellers, many of whom come from Senegal and India.

When sellers are caught, their goods confiscated but they are released because most are unable to pay a maximum fine of 3,750 euros ($5,000). Few are sent back to their home country - a bureaucratic process plagued by delays, authorities say. ($1 = 0.7555 euros)

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Alison Williams)

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I Know Several People Like This

Loch Ness Monster mystery could be explained by a fault line under the lake

Could the Loch Ness Monster actually be the result of a fault line? (AP)The legend of the Loch Ness Monster has persevered for more than 200 years. But could tales of a prehistoric sea creature located in a deep Scottish body of water be explained by science?

That’s the source of a new theory, which speculates that the Loch Ness Monster may actually be a fault line lying underneath the Scottish lake.

Even after 200 years of technological advances since the first reported spotting in 1806, rumors of the Loch Ness Monster continue to persist. In fact, technology has played a role in spawning some Nessie theories.

For example, in 2011, local boat skipper Marcus Atkinson produced a sonar image of what he described as a large object following his boat for several minutes at a depth of 75 feet.

And in 2012, George Edwards shared a photo of an unexplained image in Loch Ness. Skeptics have said the image was likely of a log floating atop the water.

Scientific American reports that Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi believes the Great Glen fault system is actually responsible for mysterious bubbles and the shaking ground commonly associated with supposed creature sightings.

"There are various effects on the surface of the water that can be related to the activity of the fault," Piccardi told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

And he has some compelling evidence to back up his case. For example, he notes that many of the alleged sightings have happened at times when the 62-mile fault was experiencing an active period.

"We know that this was a period [1920-1930] with increased activity of the fault. In reality, people have seen the effects of the earthquakes on the water."

So, what do you think? There have been strange reports near Loch Ness going all the way back to the 7th century. Are the numerous sightings over the years proof of the creature’s existence, mere coincidence, or even a self-fulfilling prophecy continued on by people who want to take part in the legend? Or, could it all actually simply be explained by a natural phenomenon found across the planet?

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Hong Kong tycoon's lover found guilty of forging multi-billion dollar will

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong jury found the lover of the late billionaire tycoon Nina Wang guilty on Thursday of forging a will naming him the sole beneficiary of her estimated $4 billion estate.

After more than 20 hours of deliberations, the jury voted 6 to 2 in the High Court to convict Peter Chan, formerly known as Tony Chan, on a charge of forgery. Chan had pleaded not guilty to a number of charges, including forgery and using a forged document.

The proceedings had transfixed Hong Kong with revelations of adultery and bizarre rituals associated with "feng shui", a Chinese philosophy meaning "wind-water", aimed at creating harmonious surroundings and harnessing natural energies.

Wang, known as "Little Sweetie", was one of Asia's wealthiest women, with a business empire including the Chinachem Group, Hong Kong's largest private property developer. She died of cancer in 2007, aged 69.

The verdict is the latest setback for the married Chan, who in March was ordered to pay HK$340 million ($43.8 million) in tax arrears, and has been hit by the lengthy and costly legal battle for Wang's estate that he lost in 2011.

Chan changed his name from Tony after that ruling and converted to Christianity this year.

After Thursday's verdict, Chan appeared flushed and lowered his head in the witness box, but showed no outward emotion.

"Without the lawsuits, I would not have gone to church and would not have experienced God," Chan told the South China Morning Post in an earlier interview. "I have no regrets."

In 2011, the High Court upheld a previous judgment that a 2006 will leaving Wang's entire $4 billion estate, one of Asia's largest fortunes, to her former lover and feng shui master was a forgery. Instead, it upheld an earlier will bequeathing her fortune to a charitable foundation.

The jury had earlier been asked by Justice Andrew Macrae to put aside personal feelings in making their judgment, the South China Morning Post reported, amid extensive media coverage.

The judge is expected to issue a sentence on Friday morning.

(Reporting by Brian Yap, Grace Li and James Pomfret; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Wealthy parents sue school, claim they were scammed into buying $50K finger painting

The Heinemanns attend the Prize4Life Gala, Sotheby's, New York City, June 24, 2013. (Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McM …

A pair of Manhattan socialites are suing a private school for nearly a half-million dollars after it allegedly tricked them into bidding $50,000 for a finger painting done by kindergarteners.

According to the lawsuit filed on Friday in New York State Supreme Court, Michelle-Marie and Jon Heinemann claim the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine sent them a bill for $50,000 after the March 1 silent auction.

“This is essentially a painting done by 5-year-olds,” a "source who knows the family" told the New York Post, which first reported the lawsuit.

The school scoffed at the Heinemanns' claims.

"These allegations are sad, false and without merit," a spokesman for the Upper West Side school said in a statement to Yahoo News. "The Cathedral School has a more than 100-year reputation of excellence in education and service to its students and demonstrates a profound respect for the dignity and equality of every child.”

The Heinemanns—whose 5-year-old son, Hudson, attended the school—were not present at the auction but instructed the school to bid on their behalf until they won the artwork. They claim the finger-painted piece should have sold for a maximum of $3,000, but a high-ranking school official made a first-grade teacher bid against the Heinemanns, resulting in the $50,000 price tag. And that was in addition to "$6,000 worth of designer clothing items" the Heinemanns bought and donated to the school specifically for the auction, the suit states.

From the lawsuit:

Additionally, Plaintiff Michelle-Marie Heinemann, a renowned artist whose works have sold for tens of thousands of dollars, donated significant amounts of her time to work with the children at the school on an art project to be included in the Auction.

The family subsequently pulled Hudson out of the $39,000-a-year school. According to the lawsuit, the employee who engineered the auction scam was terminated.

But the Heinemanns say their trouble with the K-8 day school began well before the auction. They say Hudson was "subjected to disparate and unfair treatment" during the 2012-2013 school year.

He "was consistently left out of School exhibits and films" and "was made to go last at nearly everything," the lawsuit claims:

On one occasion, Plaintiffs' five-year-old son was relegated to the role of "door-holder" and ordered to hold the door for all of the other students.

The Heinemanns say they tried to discuss the situation with school officials, but "were either ignored or otherwise met with resentment."

They say they "were forced to endure humiliation and emotional damages" as a result of the auction debacle. They're seeking $415,900 in damages, including the following:

a. Tuition to a new school- $20,000;
b. Forfeiting deposit paid to Defendant School for the following school year- $5,000;
c. Maintaining the employment of a family driver that is no longer needed due to the relocation- $60,000;
d. Continuing the employment of the family housekeeper that is no longer needed due to the relocation- $1,200 per week

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Weather radar shows giant ‘storm’ of dust, bugs in Texas

(NOAA/National Weather Service)

Forecasters in Texas thought something was wrong with their equipment late last week when radar showed a massive area of rain and strong storms stretching from Dallas to Austin on a dry summer day.

“It looked like it was raining,” Jennifer Dunn, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Dallas-Fort Worth, told the Austin American-Statesman on Friday. “We thought something was wrong with the radar, but we checked our instruments and measurements. Everything was working fine."

A screen shot from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed what appeared to be large swath of storms in the area. But while temperatures in Austin hit a record 106 degrees on Friday, skies were clear, Dunn said. She suspected the radar was picking up bugs—like, a lot of bugs.

But Pat McDonald, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in New Braunfels, Texas, disagreed.

“If it were just bugs, we’d be talking about the second coming of Christ,” McDonald said.

Dust, pollen, humidity, "lady bugs, grasshoppers, bees and even a few birds," he said, were likely kicked up into the atmosphere by a weak cold front and showed up on radar as a storm field.

"Not the apocalypse," McDonald said.

The mass disappeared after early Friday evening as temperatures fell.

And we probably won't see any apocalyptic air masses on the radar for a while. According to the National Weather Service, record or near-record low temperatures are expected across Central Texas through midweek.

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4 wallabies recaptured after walkabout at Iowa zoo

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Four red-necked wallabies made a break for freedom after a gate was left open on the Australia exhibit at a Des Moines zoo.

Officials at Blank Park Zoo say the male wallabies, also known as boomers, didn't get very far during their Sunday night walkabout. Three of the kangaroo-like mammals were captured within hours and the fourth was picked up Monday morning.

Several workers were needed to surround and catch the marsupials whose strong hind legs can catapult them great distances at high speeds. They never left the grounds of the zoo.

A zoo spokesman says none of the wallabies were hurt during their adventure.

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Dallas teacher wears same yearbook outfit for 40 years

Dale Irby is retiring after 40 years. And so is his yearbook outfit.

For his entire career at Prestonwood Elementary in the Richardson school district in Texas, the physical education teacher wore the same disco-era shirt and dirt-colored sweater each year for his yearbook picture.

At first, Irby told the Dallas Morning News, it was an accident when he wore the same outfit in the yearbook two years in a row.

“I was so embarrassed when I got the school pictures back that second year and realized I had worn the very same thing as the first year,” he said.

Then his wife, Cathy, dared him to make it three.

“After five pictures, it was like: ‘Why stop?’”

The gym teacher, now 63, had a pretty loose dress code much of the time that allowed him to wear shorts to school. But on picture day, it was dress-up day. And that day became a "Groundhog Day" of outfits: polyester, pointy-collared shirt and brown sweater.

The Dallas Morning News video shows the photos of the teacher's near-identical outfit year after year. The mustache gets a little grayer, and the eyeglasses get a little smaller. The rest of the look is the same. Impressively, he still fits into the same shirt as long as he "sucks it in a little."

While Irby’s fashion sense can be questioned, according to principal Pam Aitken, his contributions cannot. Irby, she said, was an educational treasure.

“He took his job so seriously in teaching good sportsmanship—both in athletics and in life,” Aitken told the Dallas Morning News. “He taught a lot of kids to be fair and respectful of others. That’s a great legacy.”

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Woman mysteriously living in Cancun airport

An unidentified passenger walks through the Cancun airport terminal. (AAP)She’s not a criminal and she has a passport. But authorities at Cancun’s airport say a Mexican woman has been living inside the airport for more than a week after getting off a flight back from the U.S.

News Corp Australia reports that 45-year-old Marcela Silvia Montano Mancera is a Mexican citizen, leaving airport authorities baffled as to why she hasn’t simply left the airport and returned home.

"She looks like a regular passenger at first glance, people don't look at her, but we have seen her every day. ... We are not doctors, but it's obvious that she has problems, some of my co-workers tried to speak with her, but at times it seems as if she loses it," an airline worker told News Corp.

In the meantime, employees are becoming increasingly worried about the mental health of the woman, who has been seen eating, sleeping and even bathing at various locations throughout the airport. And reportedly, she has been withdrawing money from an ATM inside the airport, which would seem to rule out her squatting in the airport out of financial necessity.

The GlobalPost adds that Marcera has reportedly been speaking to herself in both Spanish and English since arriving at the airport on June 30.

According to federal police officers, she hasn’t committed a crime by lingering in the airport terminal, so they are unable to force her to leave.

Airport employees have unsuccessfully tried to locate Mancera’s relatives but have been unable to obtain useful information from her or from public records.

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Hitler's food taster feared death with every morsel

By Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Margot Woelk spent the last few years of World War Two eating lavish meals and fearing that every mouthful could mean death.

The former food taster for Adolf Hitler was served a plate of food and forced to eat it between 11 and 12 every morning for most of the last 2-1/2 years of the Nazi German leader's life.

If she did not fall ill, the food was packed into boxes and taken to Hitler at the Wolf's Lair, a military headquarters located deep in woodland, in what is today northeastern Poland.

"Hitler was a vegetarian so it was all vegetarian fare - it was very good food like white asparagus, wonderful fruits, peppers and cauliflower," the 96-year-old Berliner told Reuters.

Along with 14 other girls in their 20s, Woelk lived in fear that every meal she ate would be her last.

"We were always terrified that the food might be poisoned as England wanted to poison Hitler and he knew that from his spies so he employed young girls to taste his food," she said.

"We cried a lot and hugged each other. We asked each other: 'Will we still be alive tomorrow or not?'"

Woelk, who still has nightmares about her role as a food taster and did not speak about her experiences for decades after the war, said she and her family were against the Nazis and that she landed the job "through a series of coincidences".

Forced to leave her apartment in Berlin when allied bombing made it uninhabitable, Woelk gave up her secretarial job and moved in with her parents-in-law in the village of Gross-Partsch, then in eastern Germany and now part of Poland.

"The mayor there was a big Nazi and he had connections with the SS (a Nazi paramilitary organization) so I was forced into it right away. I had to work to earn money," she said.

She said she never saw Hitler, though she did see his dog.

Woelk said she heard the explosion on July 20, 1944 caused by a bomb that army generals had planted at the Wolf's Lair with the aim of taking Hitler's life.

At the time Woelk was watching a film with soldiers in a tent not far from the military headquarters.

"We heard this huge bang then we fell off the wooden benches we were sitting on. Someone shouted 'Hitler is dead' but we later found out that only his hand was injured."

After the failed assassination attempt, Woelk said she had to move into supervised accommodation and was held like a prisoner, denied access to a telephone and able to visit her parents-in-law only with SS officers as chaperones.

When Hitler killed himself in April 1945, Woelk fled to Berlin and went into hiding. Soviet forces were closing in on the German capital and Woelk was later pulled out of an air raid shelter and raped by Russian soldiers for a fortnight.

The other 14 food tasters who had stayed behind were all killed, she said.

After the war Woelk started a job in pension insurance and was surprised when her husband, in Russian captivity and presumed dead, turned up unexpectedly. She had not heard from him in two years and did not recognize him.

"I've had a life full of drama and now, at the age of 96, I'm back living in the same house I lived in before the war."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Boy robs Colo. State Fair in Batman costume

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy wearing a Batman shirt and mask broke into a building at the Colorado State Fair, then turned himself in to police after seeing his likeness on the news.

The Pueblo Chieftain reported that the boy is one of three accused of breaking into the Fair's VIP building early Thursday (http://bit.ly/1aMIypL ). The trio took televisions, a laptop and an empty cash register.

The suspects managed to lock themselves in the building and had to break out.

KRDO-TV aired surveillance video of the suspect dressed as Batman. After the video aired, the boy turned himself in to police. Authorities plan to seek charges including burglary and criminal mischief.

The boy wasn't named because of his age. Police were still seeking the other two suspects.

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‘Star Wars’ fans’ short film to air as national TV commercial

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Ohio sinkhole swallows car; driver climbs ladder

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A northwest Ohio sinkhole has swallowed a car traveling down a street and briefly trapped the driver, who climbed out after authorities gave her a ladder.

Toledo police Sgt. Joe Heffernan says a water main break beneath the road may have caused the sinkhole Wednesday. The hole is estimated to be at least 10 feet deep.

Police say driver Pamela Knox didn't appear hurt but was shaken up and was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Heffernan says Knox saw the vehicle in front of her start to slip into the hole but drive beyond it. He says Knox couldn't avoid it.

Officials used a crane to pull the car from the hole. Repairs to the road are expected to take days.

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Car drives several miles with dog trapped by axle

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — South Florida firefighters came to the rescue of a dog that traveled 5 miles while trapped under the hood of a car.

The Broward Sheriff's Office says firefighters were called Thursday afternoon to Dania Beach to free the dog. The animal had been trapped between the car's axle and steering mechanism.

A sheriff's office spokesman says the dog suffered no injuries, even though it had been driven roughly 5 miles from Hallandale Beach.

It wasn't immediately clear how the dog became trapped.

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Brazilian mob decapitates soccer referee after he stabs player

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - One man has been arrested in northern Brazil after a referee who fatally stabbed an amateur player over his refusal to leave the field was decapitated by a mob, police said on Saturday.

Referee Octavio da Silva, 20, stabbed player Josenir dos Santos, 30, on June 30 after dos Santos refused to heed his order to leave, police spokesman Kena Souza told Reuters.

A mob then turned on da Silva, killing him before severing his head in the remote town of Pio XII, named after a former pope. A 27-year-old man was arrested on July 2 and police in the regional headquarters of Santa Ines will continue to investigate the incident, Souza said.

Brazil has made significant strides in lowering homicide rates in recent years, as millions were lifted from poverty, but it faces mounting pressures to show it is a safe place for tourists before 12 Brazilian cities host the 2014 soccer World Cup and Rio de Janeiro the Olympic Games in 2016.

In Rio de Janeiro on the day of the brawl, Brazil's national team handily defeated Spain in the Confederations Cup, considered a test run for next year's molyuch bigger championship. The eight-team tournament was marked by an unexpected wave of demonstrations, some violent, in part to protest the $14 billion being spent on World Cup preparations amid a lack of adequate public services.

(Reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Pa. mom settles suit over poppy seed drug test

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman who had her newborn taken away because she failed a hospital drug test after she ate a poppy seed bagel has settled a lawsuit over the case.

Lawrence County's child welfare agency and Jameson Hospital have paid $143,500 to settle the suit filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mort by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which announced the settlement Tuesday.

Mort sued in October 2010, alleging that a poppy seed bagel she ate shortly before arriving at the hospital spurred a positive test for opiates in April 2010 that prompted the seizure of her 3-day-old daughter, Isabella Rodriguez.

Mort said she was home with her baby when a county child welfare caseworker arrived with an emergency protective custody order and took Isabella.

The lawsuit alleged Mort was never told in the hospital that she had failed a drug test, nor was she asked if she had eaten anything that could have affected the test results.

The infant was returned five days later, after local officials agreed there was no evidence the mother had used illegal drugs.

The suit argued that Jameson Hospital used a much lower threshold for drug screening than federal guidelines, resulting in more false positives from common foods and medicines. The federal standard is 2,000 nanograms per milliliter, but Jameson Hospital used a reading of 300 nanograms, according to the lawsuit.

ACLU officials said Tuesday the hospital and county have implemented policy changes so newborns aren't taken from parents based only on maternal drug tests, which can be inaccurate.

"We hope that this case will encourage hospitals that routinely test pregnant women for drug use to reconsider that practice due to the harm that can result from false positives," said Pennsylvania ACLU staff attorney Sara Rose.

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Malty Cyrus ‘We Can Bark’ (VIDEO)

If you’re one of the nearly 50,000,000 people who have clicked on the Miley Cyrus video for “We Can’t Stop,” then you’re well prepared for this new parody video from The Pet Collective.

And even if you haven’t taken in the source material, rest assured, “We Can Bark” features dogs in slow motion, dogs diving into swimming pools and dogs napping. In other words, it’s a hit!

“Maltey and her friends party all day, then bark all day and all night,” the Pet Collective told Yahoo! News. “They're living the doggie dream life, laying in the sun, swimming in the pool and dancing anytime they want!”

What do you think? Can Malty Cyrus compete with Corgi Rae’s four million plus YouTube hit? It may be a pet’s world but there can be only one top dog. Though there’s always room for more keyboard playing cats.

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Iced cream: Some Twinkies will be frozen before returning to store shelves

Twinkies are returning to store shelves but in some form, they're still on iceTwinkies fans, it’s time to chill. With less than two weeks before Hostess products return to stores across the country, the company’s new ownership says it will freeze some of the snack items before shipping them from the bakery to retailers.

The New York Post reports that the change comes after Hostess products were previously shipped from company bakeries to retail outlets within 48 hours of production.

However, Hostess Yahoo! News that the request actually comes directly from retailers themselves and will only affect a small percentage of the company's overall production.

"A select number of retail customers - representing about 10 percent of our distribution - have explicitly requested to receive frozen product," Hostess spokesperson Hannah Arnold told Yahoo! News over email. "This allows them to date the product for freshness, provides flexibility in filling their shelves, and has no impact on the quality or taste of our products. The choice is up to our customers."

However, Hostess remains adamant that the new delivery process will not affect the quality of Twinkies or any of its other products.

Under the new corporate structure of private equity firms Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., Hostess has cut back on the number of company bakeries and delivery drivers after a messy labor dispute negatively affected the company last year. Hostess products remained wildly popular before last year's bankruptcy and many analysts predict the company will be back on stronger footing under new management.

“When consumers are finally able to bite into Hostess products again, they will, without question, have the same delicious experience that has given these great brands their enduring appeal,” the company said in a statement. "The new ownership is absolutely committed to baking top-quality snack cakes and, in fact, is making major investments to ensure that Hostess products are as good, if not even better than before.”

One other interesting component of this story is the debunking of the myth that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life because of the preservatives used in their creation. As the Post notes, Twinkies actually expire after about 25 days.

However, as the Washington Post notes, in 1999 President Bill Clinton did decide to include Twinkies in the millennial time capsule. So, even if Twinkies don’t technically last forever, they are truly part of our national history.

Ironically, Twinkies actually have only one chemical preservative, according to the site Today I Found Out. However, they do contain a bevy of other artificial ingredients, including cellulose gum, commonly used in rocket fuel, and artificial butter that is derived from petroleum.

The original Twinkies recipe used natural dairy products and bananas for the creamy filling, according to Fox News. In fact, the original choice of banana filling is why Twinkies have that distinctive tubular yellow shape. However, vanilla cream was used as a substitute after a banana shortage during World War II. After the war, people preferred the vanilla taste, so the change became permanent.

Residents of Emporia, Kan., plan to celebrate the July 15 return of Hostess products with a Twinkies Festival. Hostess has reopened a bakery in the city where 500 employees lost their jobs after the company went bankrupt last year. However, the new owners of Hostess said they will employ only 250 workers for the time being.

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Humerus reunion: Doc returns Vietnamese vet's arm

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — An American doctor arrived in Vietnam carrying an unlikely piece of luggage: the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966.

Dr. Sam Axelrad brought the skeletal keepsake home to Texas as a reminder that when a badly injured North Vietnamese soldier was brought to him, he did the right thing and fixed him up. The bones sat in a closet for decades, and when the Houston urologist finally pulled them out two years ago, he wondered about their true owner, Nguyen Quang Hung.

The men were reunited Monday at Hung's home in central Vietnam. They met each other's children, and grandchildren, and joked about which of them had been better looking back when war had made them enemies. Hung was stunned that someone had kept his bones for so long, but happy that when the time comes, they will be buried with him.

"I'm very glad to see him again and have that part of my body back after nearly half a century," Hung said by telephone Monday after meeting Axelrad. "I'm proud to have shed my blood for my country's reunification, and I consider myself very lucky compared with many of my comrades who were killed or remain unaccounted for."

Hung, 73, said American troops shot him in the arm in October 1966 during an ambush about 75 kilometers (46 miles) from An Khe, the town where he now lives. After floating down a stream to escape a firefight and then sheltering in a rice warehouse for three days, he was evacuated by a U.S. helicopter to a no-frills military hospital in Phu Cat, in central Binh Dinh province.

"When I was captured by the American forces, I was like a fish on a chopping-board," Hung said last week. "They could have either killed or spared me."

When Hung got to Axelrad, then a 27-year-old military doctor, his right forearm was the color of an eggplant. To keep the infection from killing his patient, Axelrad amputated the arm above the elbow.

After the surgery, Hung spent eight months recovering and another six assisting American military doctors, Hung said. He spent the rest of the war offering private medical services in the town, and later served in local government for a decade before retiring on his rice farm.

"He probably thought we were going to put him in some prisoner-of-war camp," Axelrad said. "Surely he was totally surprised when we just took care of him."

As for the arm, Axelrad said his medic colleagues boiled off the flesh, reconstructed the arm bones and gave them to him. It was hardly common practice, but he said it was a reminder of a good deed performed.

The bones sat in a military bag in Axelrad's closet for decades, along with other things from the war that he didn't want look at because he didn't want to relive those experiences.

When he finally went through the mementos in 2011, "it just blew me away what was in there," Axelrad said at a hotel bar in Hanoi early Sunday, hours after arriving in Vietnam with his two sons and two grandchildren on Saturday evening. "That kind of triggered my thoughts of returning."

It had taken a little luck for Axelrad to reunite Hung with his amputated arm. He traveled to Vietnam last summer — partly for vacation, but also to try to find the man.

He said he wasn't sure Hung was still alive, or where to begin looking for him. Axelrad visited An Khe but didn't ask for him there because he assumed Hung would be living in northern Vietnam, where he grew up.

By chance, Axelrad toured the old Vietnam War bunker at the Metropole Hotel in downtown Hanoi. His tour guide was Tran Quynh Hoa, a Vietnamese journalist who took a keen interest in his war stories.

Hoa later wrote an article in a widely read Vietnamese newspaper about Axelrad's quest to return the bones to their owner. Hung said his brother-in-law in Ho Chi Minh City read the article and contacted the newspaper's editors.

Hoa, now a communications officer for the International Labour Organization, arranged Monday's reunion in An Khe, near the coastal city of Qui Nhon, and served as an interpreter for the veterans.

"It's just time for closure," Axelrad said a day before the meeting.

Hung was surprised to be reunited with his lost limb, to say the least.

"I can't believe that an American doctor took my infected arm, got rid of the flesh, dried it, took it home and kept it for more than 40 years," he said by telephone last week from his home. "I don't think it's the kind of keepsake that most people would want to own. But I look forward to seeing him again and getting my arm bones back."

Hung served Axelrad and his family lunch, shared memories and reflected on all the time that had passed. Axelrad said he was pleased to learn where and how Hung had been living for so many years, and to meet his children and grandchildren.

"I'm so happy that he was able to make a life for himself," Axelrad said.

Vietnam is now a country full of young people who have no direct memory of the war, which ended in 1975 and killed an estimated 58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. But the war's legacy persists in the minds of combat veterans who still are processing the events and traumas they witnessed in their youth.

John Ernst, a Vietnam War expert at Morehead State University in Kentucky, said he knows of a few American veterans who have traveled to Vietnam to return personal items to former enemy soldiers as a way to bring closure.

"It is a fascinating phenomenon," Ernst said by e-mail Sunday. "I always wonder what triggers the decision to make the gesture."

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Taco Bell customers get cash instead of food

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — That was no burrito.

Three people who ordered food at a Taco Bell drive-thru in western Michigan got something more valuable: $3,600 in cash.

A Taco Bell employee mistakenly passed the cash to the trio instead of their food Saturday. The money was returned a short time later.

Kennidi Rue told WZZM-TV and MLive.com that she and two friends thought about keeping the money but decided they would feel guilty if they didn't return it. Grand Rapids police Capt. Jeff Hertel confirmed the incident, saying an officer was called to assist.

"I thought it was joke," said Rue, 18, of Holland, Mich. "I thought we were on camera. ... The store manager literally just burst out in tears. She was so happy we brought it back."

The money was in a store bag for deposit at a bank. A message seeking comment was left with Taco Bell.

Rue, boyfriend Grant Kruse, 20, and another friend, Luke Postma, 25, got their meal when they returned the money. Kruse and Postma are National Guard members who were in Grand Rapids for training.

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Israeli who murdered his parents used tips he found online

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Lover of late Hong Kong tycoon jailed 12 years for will forgery

By Grace Li and Brian Yap

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong judge on Friday jailed a former lover of late billionaire tycoon Nina Wang for 12 years for forging a will naming him the sole heir to one of Asia's largest fortunes, estimated at $4 billion.

Justice Andrew Macrae delivered the sentence on Peter Chan, formerly known as Tony Chan, in the city's High Court a day after a jury found him guilty on charges of forgery and using a forged document. Chan had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Sentencing Chan to 12 years on each charge, to be served concurrently, Macrae highlighted the "shameless and unparalleled greed" at the heart of a "well-executed and planned" crime, that saw Chan exploit his relationship with Wang to obtain large amounts of her money in her final years.

"Never once ... have you shown the slightest remorse for your conduct," the judge said. "You took full advantage of her sadness, loneliness and tragic life."

As the sentence was handed down, Chan, dressed in dark suit and white shirt and flanked by three guards in the dock, stared solemnly at his wife in the public gallery, and nodded slowly.

His wife had sobbed throughout the hearing, covering her mouth with a small handkerchief.

The judge also ordered Chan to pay more than HK$2 million ($257,900) for legal costs the prosecution incurred in a preliminary inquiry the latter had requested.

Chan's lawyer and wife made no immediate reply to queries whether he would appeal against the judgment.

The proceedings had transfixed Hong Kong with revelations of adultery and bizarre rituals associated with "feng shui", a Chinese philosophy meaning "wind-water", aimed at creating harmonious surroundings and harnessing natural energies.

The 53-year-old father of three also described in court how he had enjoyed a passionate sexual relationship with the billionaire heiress, who was more than 20 years his senior.

Judge Macrae said Chan was tarnishing Wang's good name and reputation by making himself her sole beneficiary and diverting the money from her charitable foundation to himself.

Chan managed to get 30 million sterling from Wang when she was sick and fragile in the last two days of her life, the judge said, calling his behavior "shameless" and "wicked".

Hong Kong police investigators hailed the result.

"This shows that no matter how long we take, the Hong Kong judicial system will ensure that any culprit will be subject to the great hand of justice," Ho Pak-ling, an official of the Commercial Crime Bureau, told reporters outside the court.

Known as "Little Sweetie" after a favorite Japanese manga cartoon character, Wang was one of Asia's wealthiest women, with a business empire including the Chinachem Group, Hong Kong's largest private property developer. She died of cancer in 2007, aged 69.

The petite Wang, known for her braided pig-tails, mini-skirts and beloved pet dogs that she took to boardroom meetings, inherited most of her wealth from her husband, Teddy, who was kidnapped in 1990 and never seen alive again, despite the payment of a $33-million ransom.

The sentence is the latest setback for Chan, who was ordered in March to pay HK$340 million ($43.8 million) in tax arrears, and has been hit by the long, costly legal battle for Wang's estate that he lost in 2011.

Chan, a former bartender and feng shui master, who once lived in a cramped public housing flat, changed his name from Tony after that ruling and converted to Christianity this year.

In 2011, the High Court upheld a previous judgment that a 2006 will leaving Wang's entire estate to Chan was a forgery, and upheld an earlier will bequeathing her fortune to a charitable foundation run by her family.

(Editing by James Pomfret and Clarence Fernandez)

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Calif. roller coaster screams exceed decibel limit

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California roller coaster appears to have been a little too much fun.

The Gold Striker at Great America in Santa Clara had to be taken offline this week because riders were screaming too loudly.

The San Jose Mercury News reports (http://bit.ly/1aK6QAw ) that the shrieks were exceeding the decibel limit agreed upon in a settlement with Prudential Real Estate, which owns adjacent properties.

So Great America had to cover a portion of the track in a sound-dampening tunnel. The wooden roller coaster reopened on Wednesday after the work was completed.

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English profanity earns place in standard German dictionary

(Note: contains profanity throughout story)

BERLIN (Reuters) - The English profanity "shitstorm" is so widely used by Germans, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, that the country's most prestigious dictionary has included it in its latest edition.

"Over the last few years, 'shitstorm' has entered everyday usage so that's why it now appears in the new printed edition of the dictionary," said Nicole Weiffen, head of communications at Duden, which publishes Germany's standard dictionary.

"It is used in a lot of print and online media as well as in a whole host of other contexts so it is really relevant for the German language now," she told Reuters.

The latest edition of the Duden dictionary defines the word as "a storm of indignation expressed via the internet, sometimes accompanied by offensive comments."

That varies slightly from the English meaning, with the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines shitstorm as "a situation marked by violent controversy".

Asked last year if it was worth considering whether internet users should have some kind of driving license, Merkel said: "Yes but I won't make any suggestions here. Otherwise we'll get a 'shitstorm' tomorrow."

The word was named "Anglicism of the Year" by a panel of language experts in 2011, who said it "filled a gap in the German language".

Germans also use the word "candystorm" to refer to an outpouring of approval for public figures. That word has yet to enter the Duden dictionary.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Archive reveals early 1900s aerial photography of U.S. cities

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Avatars might encourage women to lose weight: Study

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California pot shop billed as world's largest may stay open for now -judge

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A medical marijuana dispensary billed as the world's largest cannabis store may stay open while the city of Oakland fights a U.S. government effort to shut it down or seize the property, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

There has been a tug-of-war in California between federal and local authorities over cannabis sold for purported health reasons.

In February, Magistrate Maria-Elena James, the same judge who ruled on Wednesday, said the city had no right to intervene in a federal prosecutor's civil-forfeiture action against the Harborside Health Center, which was featured on the Discovery Channel reality TV show "Weed Wars."

The city appealed the ruling, and James's latest order allows the dispensary to continue to sell marijuana to individuals carrying a doctor's recommendation while the appeal is under review. James called the question of Oakland's legal standing in the case "a matter of significant public interest."

Attorney Cedric Chao, who is representing the city in the case, called the ruling "very significant."

"The court has recognized that Oakland has legitimate interests in protecting its residents' health, in promoting public safety, and in protecting the integrity of its legislative framework for the regulation of medical cannabis," Chao said.

"Today's order, coming right before the July Fourth holiday, reminds us all that one of the strengths of our country is its independent judiciary."

Harborside's landlords have moved to evict the store under pressure from federal prosecutors, who have threatened to seize the property as part of a U.S. government crackdown on what it deems to be illegal pot shops in California.

The city of Oakland in October sued the federal government in an effort to allow Harborside to continue selling marijuana to its 100,000 patients. Oakland officials warned that a shutdown would lead to a "health crisis."

The city expects to collect $1.4 million in medical-pot sales tax revenue this year.

A representative for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco was not immediately available for comment.

Federal authorities in recent years have launched a crackdown in California and other states against what prosecutors consider an illegal network of cannabis suppliers established under state medical marijuana laws.

California was the first to legalize pot for medical purposes, and nearly 20 other states and the District of Columbia have enacted similar statutes, though marijuana is classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Toni Reinhold)

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