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Sophie Okonedo as Sithandra in the upcoming movie adaptation of MTV's Aeon Flux. Am I being paranoid, or is this role going to generate a protest or three from "more sensitive groups" out there?

Teacher Claims Insanity in Sex Case Monday, July 18, 2005 TAMPA, Fla. — A teacher will claim she was insane due to emotional stress and did not know right from wrong when she had sex numerous times with a 14-year-old student, her attorney said Monday. "What teacher in her right mind would do something like this?" attorney John Fitzgibbons said after a brief hearing for his client, Debra Lafave (search), a middle-school reading teacher....

Woman 'miraculously' grows a penis July 14 2005 at 12:42PM Hlaing Thar Yar, Myanmar - Chicken-seller Thin Sandarin had always dreamt of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen - as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him. "On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, said on Wednesday. "And my breasts disappeared," Than...

Victorian Police are describing a freakish accident in far-east Gippsland this morning as something out of a Hollywood movie. Two workmen were driving their twin-cab utility to the Mallacoota Airport when the car hit a wombat crossing the road. Senior Constable Mark Tregellas says the car then crashed through a guard rail and became airborne off the side of the bridge. "And landed on a tree that was about 20 feet above the creek across from the bridge," he said. "They teetered there and basically fell off the tree into the creek. "The car was completely totalled and surprisingly both...

Michigan boy, 12, accused of drinking, taking joy ride 6/15/2005, 4:16 p.m. ET The Associated Press NILES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A young driver took his friend's mother's car for an alcohol-induced, middle-of-the-night, trash can-smashing joyride before wrecking the vehicle and landing in the hospital with some broken bones, state police said. After he is released, the driver's case will be referred to juvenile court because he's only 12 years old. Troopers from the Michigan State Police post in Niles made the surprising discovery after freeing the youngster from the vehicle, which crashed early Tuesday in a dead end in...

It's quads - again 29may05 A QUEENSLAND woman is pregnant with quads for the second time in what is believed to be a world first. Dale Chalk, 26, is due to give birth to her second consecutive set of quads in December. Mrs Chalk and her husband Darren, 34, a security guard, became parents to quads last August using an anonymous sperm donor through the Queensland Fertility Group. They also have a daughter, Shelby, 2, conceived using the same donor. After the birth of her first set of quads – Ellie, Emma, Joseph and Samuel, who were born 13 weeks...

<p>A 407-pound New York woman claims she is suffering severe pain because her obesity leaves her unable to get proper medical attention.</p> <p>Jennifer Walters, who is bed-ridden and cannot walk because of excessive weight, told the New York Post because she cannot fit into a magnetic resonance imaging machine, a doctor said she should go to the Bronx Zoo for an X-ray.</p>

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) Country music icon Willie Nelson is trying something a little different. Nelson, 72, will release a long-awaited reggae album, "Countryman" in July. He shot video in Jamaica this month for a cover of Jimmy Cliff's reggae classic "The Harder They Come" and Johnny and June Carter Cash's country music classic "I'm a Worried Man." "Willie started the project 10 years ago when he first came to Jamaica, but it's only been completed now," Mike Cacia, who worked on the album videos, said Thursday. Nelson, 72, began production on "Countryman" in 1995. The project was shelved when the...

Toddler Leads Deputies To 1,700 Pounds Of Pot UPDATED: 8:01 am MDT May 20, 2005 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputies found nearly a ton of pot at a home, thanks to a toddler and an OnStar in-vehicle safety and security system. The Albuquerque Journal reported Friday that a 2-year-old boy who was locked in his father's Ford Escalade in southeast Albuquerque pushed the OnStar button in the car for help. The device not only can guide a motorist to a location, it can also unlock doors and call for help. Officials responded to the OnStar alert, and when...

Madisonville, KY, May. 16 (UPI) -- A western Kentucky judge has dropped charges against five young boys who were charged with felony sex crimes for meeting in bathrooms at grade schools. The cases shocked the communities of Madisonville and Earlington after five boys, ages 6 to 8, were accused of criminal sexual activity. The boys were charged with having liaisons in bathrooms where touching and oral sex allegedly occurred. No adults were charged.

BALTIMORE -- Imagine being frozen in time as a baby forever. It sounds impossible, but it describes Brooke Greenberg. The Baltimore-area girl may look like a baby, but she's nearly a teenager. In most respects, Brooke looks and acts like your average 6-month-old baby -- she weighs 13 pounds and she is 27 inches long. Brooke Greenberg, 12, weighs 13 pounds and is 27 inches long. But Brooke is actually 12 years old, reported WBAL-TV in Baltimore. Brooke doesn't age. Her syndrome remains undiagnosed and unnamed, and as far as doctors can tell, she is the only one in the...

A biology class lesson in Gunnison, Utah involving the dissection of a live dog has outraged some parents and students, according to a report. "I thought that it would be just really a good experience if they could see the digestive system in the living animal," Biology teacher Doug Bierregaard said. Biology teacher Doug Bjerregaard, who is a substitute teacher at Gunnison Valley High School, wanted his students to see how the digestive system of a dog worked. Bjerregaard made arrangements for his students to be a part of a dissection of a dog that was still alive. The dog...

Trial set in plastic-wrap case Wednesday, May 11, 2005 By Larry O'Connor Prosecutors believe Rives Junction man was trying to kill his daughter when he wrapped her in cellophane. When Henry V. Lott II asked his 16-year-old daughter to skip school so she could join him for a jaunt to Lansing, she didn't give it second thought. But they stayed at the Springport High School sophomore's home instead April 19 and the visit from her noncustodial father turned into a harrowing ordeal. On Tuesday, the Rives Junction man was ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, second-degree child...

The 14-year-old Lauderdale Lakes teen accused of raping a 10-year-old boy at knifepoint broke into tears today after a Broward judge sent him to jail. Deandre Davis, who faces two counts of armed sexual battery in connection with the alleged attack in December, had been out on pre-trial release. According to Broward sheriff's investigators, the 10-year-old victim started walking across the baseball field in Vincent Torres Park and saw Davis standing by the bleachers, kicking two garbage cans. Davis, detectives say, grabbed the boy's shirt, pointed a 12-inch knife against his right temple and threatened to stab him if he...

ANDERSON, Ind. - A man who took up bicycling after bypass surgery gave him a second chance at life died of a heart attack the day after completing a 2,400-mile, cross-country trip. Broc Bebout, a 57-year-old retired engineer, died Thursday on the van drive back to his home in Anderson, about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis, one day after completing the bicycle ride from Carlsbad, Calif., to Brunswick, Ga. His wife, Patricia Brinkman, said bicycling became Bebout's ticket to nearly 20 years of good health after quadruple-bypass surgery at age 39. He also learned to eat right and take care...

In the land of bootleg merchandise, fake management books by fake authors flourish. Times Headlines Wall St. Ignores Boeing Profit Slip Panel OKs Appointee to Workers' Comp Post Sony's Loss Widens as Revenue Falls Former Tyco Chief Denies Stealing From Company De La Hoya Turns Eye to Real Estate Projects more > Most E-mailed A Society That Throws the Sick Away Jesus Was No GOP Lobbyist Pot Laws Pain Some Elders > more e-mailed stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHINA PUBLISHING INDUSTRY BOOKS FRAUD FRAUD CHINA BOOKS PUBLISHING INDUSTRY By Don Lee, Times Staff Writer SHANGHAI — The five-volume "Executive Ability" book series...

Able Richardson's weight is catching up with him. The 540-pound Wilmer Amina Carter High School sophomore fell Friday morning in the bathroom. He was unconscious for nearly an hour, his mother said. Able remains in intensive care at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, said his mother, Jean Myers, on Monday afternoon. "They're still running some tests,' she said. Joy Jameson, a hospital spokeswoman, said the staff considered the 15-year-old Rialto boy in good spirits. She said he was moving around well for his weight. How and why he fell had not been determined Monday. Able, who is morbidly obese, weighs...

Thursday April 21, 2005 RACINE, Wis. (AP) A school principal who tried to take a wooden pole from an 8-year-old boy on school grounds Thursday was hit several times in the upper body and head, sending her to the hospital for treatment, police said. Police Sgt. William Macemon said Angela Ress Apmann, principal at Julian Thomas Elementary School, saw the boy prior to the start of school, carrying a pole that was about 28 inches long and 1{ inches in diameter. When she went to get the pole from him, he started swinging it at her and hit her several...

Researchers at the Iowa Great Ape Trust are putting eight intelligent bonobos in a human-like living situation to study how culture may emerge. From the Associated Press: The bonobos will be able to cook in their own kitchen, tap vending machines for snacks, go for walks in the woods and communicate with researchers through computer touchscreens. The decor in their 18-room home includes an indoor waterfall and climbing areas 30 feet high... Using a network of cameras and computers, the bonobos can see visitors who ring the doorbell -- and will be able to choose through a computer touchscreen who...

Aizawl: A well-known wildlife enthusiast in India's northeastern state of Mizoram has offered his corpse to be left for wild animals to feed on as part of a bizarre will, court officials said Wednesday. A spokesperson at the District Council Court in Mizoram's capital Aizawl said 46-year-old New World Laldingliana, a Christian tribal, has made a will wishing that his mortal remains be left in the forest for wild animals to eat.