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A public school mistress who was “pressured” into a lesbian affair by a 15-year-old pupil will be allowed to continue see the girl after she is released from a 15-month jail term. Helen Goddard - a music teacher nicknamed “the jazz lady” by pupils - befriended the teenager over coffee after lessons and their relationship eventually became sexual. Goddard wept as she was jailed today at London’s Southwark Crown Court and placed on the sex offenders' register. But Judge Anthony Pitts decided not to grant a prosecution request that she be banned from seeing the teenager for five years. [SNIP]...

Elton John has changed his mind on adoption, the star told Reuters on Saturday. On a visit to Ukraine with his AIDS Foundation, Elton reportedly performed his hit “Circle of Life” for children at an orphanage, some of whose parents had died of AIDS – and met a child who stole his heart. “[Partner] David [Furnish] and I have always talked about adoption,” the singer told Reuters. “David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said ‘no’ because I am 62 and I think because of the traveling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn’t...

A retired RAF pilot was hailed a hero today after he wrestled a World War II bomber away from a crowd of spectators and houses when the giant aircraft accidentally took off at an air show. The giant Victor bomber - named Teasin' Tina - was only supposed to taxi down the runway and stop for a photoshoot before returning to the hangar. But the bungling 'co-pilot' - an engineer with no flying experience - hit the throttle by mistake and the 75-tonne bomber lurched 150 feet into the air. Stunned pilot Bob Prothero, 70, grabbed the controls as the...

A man from China decided to keep fit using two old mortars before a friend noticed the devices were still live. Former army officer Xie Long, 87, said: "A colleague told me they were defused and because they were heavy and in the right shape I took two home to use as dumbbells. "Even my two sons used to use them as well for training. I can't believe we trained with them for 30 years with nothing happening." The mortars were discovered by chance when a friend from the local police force who also specialised in explosives visited Long at...

HARTFORD, Conn. — Police say two pet baby snakes escaped from a 20-year-old man's pants pockets as he was driving, leading to a car crash in Hartford, Connecticut. Angel Rolon, of New Britain, allegedly lost control of his sport utility vehicle on Monday when the snakes slithered near the gas and brake pedals and he and a passenger tried to catch them.

Texas wildlife officials say there are six alligators living in the Rio Grande, east of Fort Hancock in Hudspeth County. "There were approximately six alligators that were observed, three of them that were in the 2- to 4-foot range, and about three of them in the 5- to 6-foot range," Texas Game Warden Ray Spears told KFOX-TV, El Paso, Texas. Spears said the alligators are in a rural area, so they don't pose much danger to humans. He said it is believed they were dropped off in the area by someone who was previously keeping them. The warden said his...

PORTLAND, Ore., -- There’s a new nightclub opening in Portland for people who like to swing. And it's not the tree-tire variety, community park child's activity or mid 1950s dance style. Club Sesso opens Friday to Portland couples who like to have sex with other couples -- or singles who enjoy having sex with other couples. And iconic porn film star Ron Jeremy has lent his name and prestige to downtown's newest destination. Club Sesso is located on SW 1st Avenue. Paul Smith, its owner, is relocating from Clackamas and expects a lot of business. Portland just doesn't have a...

Morgan Freeman, 72, has allegedly been carrying on an affair with his step-granddaughter, E'Dena Hines, 27, according to the National Enquirer. The report alleges that the affair began when Hines was in her teens.

Polish woman wakes up in morgue An 84-year-old Polish woman woke up in a morgue after being declared dead by her doctor. The emergency medical services became aware of the error when someone saw her body bag in the morgue moving, police said. The woman, from the village of Jablonowo in central Poland, fell unconscious and her husband called an ambulance. A doctor from the emergency medical services pronounced her dead, January Majewski, a police spokesman said. A funeral company took the body to the morgue. Several hours later, a worker there noticed the bag containing the body was moving,"...

NEW YORK - A New York City woman says her father apparently lay dead for weeks in a minivan while police repeatedly left parking tickets on the vehicle.

ZURICH (Reuters) – A car traveling on a motorway in Switzerland lost all four wheels simultaneously, coming to an immediate halt in the middle of the highway, police said on Saturday. The car had just stopped and the passengers had changed from winter to summer wheels themselves, a common task in Switzerland where there is plenty of snow in winter, but used the wrong nuts when mounting the new set.

Albany, NY (AHN) - A man sitting down for a relaxing dinner at a TGI Fridays in Clifton Park, N.Y. instead received a startling surprise. He found a severed snake's head in his side order of vegetables, and the restaurant is now saying it was planted in his meal sometime after it was cooked. Jack Pendleton ordered a chicken sandwich and a side of mixed vegetables on Sunday night. When he finished his sandwich, he started digging into the vegetables. He then noticed what he thought was a mushroom, but he was put off by its green color. He then...

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY DARRYL SJOBERG Nokomis resident Jan Keith found an 8-foot long alligator on her front porch in the Calusa Lakes subdivision Friday morning. Trapper Harry Flechig and two Sarasota County Sheriff's deputies quickly captured the animal.

The sight of a severed snake's head under his broccoli made Jack Pendleton lose interest in dessert. Pendleton said he found the head, the size of the end of his thumb, while eating Sunday at the T.G.I. Friday's in Clifton Park. The chain restaurant said it regrets the appetite-killing error. Pendleton said he has no plans to sue. Pendleton said he ordered vegetables instead of fries with his chicken sandwich. When he started to eat his broccoli, he saw something gray on the plate he at first thought was a mushroom. "I start to turn it over. I see this...

TULSA, Okla. — One of the most deadly spiders in the world has been found in the produce section of a Tulsa grocery store. An employee of Whole Foods Market found the Brazilian Wandering Spider Sunday in bananas from Honduras and managed to catch it in a container. The spider was given to University of Tulsa Animal Facilities director Terry Childs who said this type of spider kills more people than any other.

<p>A South Carolina man working on his tan escaped serious injury after the tanning bed he was in suddenly burst into flames, The News & Observer of Fayetteville reported.</p> <p>The unidentified man told the paper that he was in the bed when he heard a popping noise and saw a flame near his foot.</p>

SEATTLE - A security video released Friday shows a King County sheriff's deputy purportedly shoving and kicking a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell after her arrest. The security video was obtained by KOMO News under the state Open Records Act. The deputy, Paul Schene, 31, has been charged with fourth-degree assault in connection with the Nov. 29 incident in a holding cell at SeaTac City Hall. Schene pleaded not guilty to the charge Thursday, and he was released on his own recognizance. According to court records, Schene and another deputy arrested a pair of 15-year-old girls for investigation of...

AUGUSTA -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey and Maine State Climate Office announced today that a minus-50 reading in northwestern Maine held up to scientific scrutiny. That beats Maine's old record of 48 below zero set in 1925 in Van Buren, and ties the record for coldest temperature recorded in New England. That reading was made in 1933 in Bloomfield, Vt. The record on New Hampshire's Mount Washington is minus-47. Maine's minus-50 reading was made on Jan. 16 at a remote site along the Big Black River near the Quebec border as the region was in...

WARSON WOODS, Mo., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Veterinarians in Warson Woods, Mo., say they found 15 pacifiers, a bottle cap and a piece of a basketball in a 2-year-old bulldog named Lulu. Lulu's owners, David and Jennifer Swart, said their 18-month-old daughter's pacifiers kept disappearing and they kept buying more. When Lulu showed an interest in the pacifiers, they took her to the vet, who performed surgery last month after X-rays revealed an unusual gray area in Lulu's stomach, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday. The vets saved the pacifiers, some of which had turned black from Lulu's stomach acid,...

“The road back to economic recovery and long-term prosperity will be built by an active, job-creating private-sector, paved by reliable, affordable energy, and financed by the revenues and royalties generated as a result of it. Expanding the government’s payroll in times of unemployment is no different than printing out more money in times of recession – both may change the short-term perception of the economy, but neither will improve the actual performance of it. “You can create all the new government jobs you want, but if those jobs can’t survive the night without the constant nourishment of subsidies, mandates and...

Stocks plunge as investors ponder Obama presidency A case of post-election nerves has sent stocks plunging as investors, again anxious about a recession, are wondering what impact a Barack Obama presidency will have on business and the overall economy. Volatility has returned on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrials falling 486 points to the 9,139 level, and all the major indexes tumbling more than 5 percent.

BOYNTON BEACH — A woman who lived with her ex-partner on the city's south side stabbed her former lover more than 200 times with a Phillips-head screwdriver and then tried to conceal the killing, police said. After committing the crime, Carol Anne Burger, 57, a writer who friends described as engaged and eager to move on with life, reported her old flame missing and then, a day later, shot herself to death in her backyard, police said.

It makes sense that he would not? Right? Just curious.

Faizel Ali Enait refuses to shake hands with women and prefers them to wear burqas. But on the website of his law firm, two hard-core porn actresses posed as its secretaries. Faizel Ali Enait claims to be a lawyer. He works for Jairam Advocaten, a law firm for Muslims in the Netherlands. Ali Enait lost a court case last week against Rotterdam municipality, which he accused of discrimination. The municipality rejected the Muslim for a job as client manager at the Social Services department because he refused to shake hands with women. The judges ruled that Rotterdam had the right...

Man bitten by Walmart rattlesnake From correspondents in Miami July 08, 2008 09:33amA POSIONOUS rattlesnake hidden among leafy plants in the garden section of a Walmart store in Florida sprang out and bit a man who was shopping there. The man was taken to hospital after the 30cm pygmy rattlesnake bit him in the right hand while he was looking at the plants at the store in Pembroke Pines, Florida, about 50km north of Miami. "This is an isolated incident and we're taking precautions to make sure that it doesn't happen again," said Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie. "To ensure the...

MIAMI, US - A POISONOUS rattlesnake hidden among leafy plants in the garden section of US retail giant Walmart sprung out and bit a man who was shopping there, a company spokeswoman said on Monday. The man was hospitalised after the 30-centimeter pygmy rattlesnake bit him in the right hand while he was perusing the plants at the store in Pembroke Pines, Florida, about 50 kilometers north of Miami. 'This is an isolated incident and we're taking precautions to make sure that it doesn't happen again,' Walmart spokeswoman Ms Ashley Hardie said. 'To ensure the well-being of our customers, we...

FORT WORTH -- A man moving into a new apartment today may have found a bag containing two human hands.A prospective tenant in the 1100 block of Grainger Street in southwest Fort Worth was cleaning out a garage apartment in anticipation of moving in when he found a plastic grocery sack in the freezer, according to Fort Worth police.The man opened the sack and found what looked like "two mangled up frozen hands," according to a statement from Fort Worth Police spokesman Lt. Paul Henderson.The man called police. Some officers who arrived on the scene agreed that the items could...

Formal approval has been granted for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual personnel in HM Armed Forces to march in No.1 uniform (RN/RAF) No. 2 uniform (Army)through Central London on 5th July 2008, as part of the annual Gay Pride event. Whilst the Royal Navy has marched in uniform in previous years, Army and RAF personnel will also be marching in uniform for the first time this year. A large number of personnel have already committed to attend. Personnel will be considered to be on-duty for the uniformed element of the event. RAF personnel who wish to attend in uniform are...

Olympia, Washington: Dee Williams wanted a simpler, greener life -- so she built her dream house, an 84-square-foot cottage on wheels, which is currently parked in a friend's backyard. Not only did she save money using salvaged materials (the front door came from a dumpster, for instance), but the entire house is small enough to fit into a standard parking spot. Says Williams, 'Right now, there's nowhere else I want to be.' Williams’ trailer cottage is surprisingly roomy inside, largely thanks to its clever use of height. For example, Williams’ bed is in a loft above her kitchen. Williams is...

GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 24 (UPI) -- Burmese pythons are multiplying rapidly in the Everglades and moving north in Florida and south to the Keys, a University of Florida researcher says. Frank Mazzoti said the pythons can live anywhere alligators can, which would include all of Florida and swamp areas in Georgia and Louisiana, Science Daily reported.

A tornado has been reported in downtown Atlanta...some injuries.

Sweden's welfare board has criticized a hospital in Stockholm after a 40-year-old woman caught fire during a hemorrhoid operation, Aftonbladet reports. While the woman's piles were successfully removed by doctors at Ersta Hospital, she ended up leaving the surgery in September with a partially burned backside. In addition to the hemorrhoids, the woman was also in hospital to have a lump removed with the aid of electrosurgery. The accident took place after a nurse had cleaned the woman's skin with an antiseptic solution. With some of the highly flammable liquid having trickled under the women's body, the patient caught fire...

An Australian who went for a drunken dip in the sea got more than he bargained for when he dived into the jaws of a large crocodile. Matt Martin was camping alone near a beach in northern Queensland when he decided to go for a dusk swim, despite having drunk what he later admitted was "half a slab", or 12 cans of beer. When the 35-year-old construction worker dived into a wave, he butted heads with a submerged saltwater crocodile. "I thought I was dead. It was sort of like when you hit rocks but the rocks had give and...

Corrina Vargas, 26, was cooking breakfast morning in her mother’s airport district home this morning when she heard an explosion. Her son, Carlos Mendez, 10, was sitting on a bed in the living room watching cartoons when something came through the roof. A small piece of the debris hit him in the back of the head. Both ran out of the house, and her mother, Mary Montano, gathered the rest of the adults and children in the house and got them out. No one was injured by what turned out to be a bowling ball-sized chunk of ice that crashed...

"Madonna is reported to have started injecting herself with vitamins to boost her energy levels. The singer, who turns 49 on Thursday, is said to have surprised passengers on a recent flight from New York to London by injecting herself with a vitamin shot in her arm."

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Saudi passenger tried to smuggle a large number of reptiles, including cobra snakes and infant Nile crocodiles, out of Egypt in his luggage, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Sunday. The discovery of the reptiles in the passenger's bags triggered a brief panic among security personnel at the Cairo International Airport, witnesses said. The 22-year-old passenger, identified only as Anas, said he needed the reptiles, which also included chameleons, for scientific research at his university in Saudi Arabia. His collection will be handed over to Egypt's main zoo in Cairo.

INDUSTRY - Sheriff's bomb squad experts evacuated 500 people and removed a live rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) from a trash processing plant on Friday afternoon, officials said. The grenade was discovered at about 10:30 a.m. Friday at Athens Service's Materials Recycling Facility in the 14000 block of Valley Boulevard. "An employee spotted the device, we shut the plant down and employees were evacuated," said Chris Carlos, the company's director of governmental affairs. Sheriff's officials said the grenade, painted blue, was removed to a remote facility Friday afternoon. The grenade was of unknown origin. "(The FBI was) notified but we did not...

PAW PAW, Mich. — Why did the 21-year-old cross the road?Benjamin Carpenter, 21, was crossing a Michigan highway in his wheelchair when he became stuck in a semitrailer's grille and pushed for miles before the unknowing driver was pulled over, police said on Thursday. Carpenter escaped unharmed, saying, "It was quite a ride," police said. Carpenter was attempting to cross on Wednesday when the light turned green and his wheelchair became hooked onto the front grille of the truck, which reached 50 mph during the 4-mile trip down Red Arrow Highway, Michigan State Police Trooper Michael Sinke said witnesses reported....

THE way was cleared today for scientists to conduct experiments using hybrid animal-human embryos after the UK Government bowed to a storm of protest from researchers who said a proposed ban could hurt British science. The Department of Health said it would accept a recommendation from the Commons Science and Technology Committee that inter-species embryos could be created for research. Scientists want to use the hybrid embryos to find cures for illnesses such as Parkinson's, stroke and Alzheimer's. In December, the Government had proposed a ban on creating the hybrid embryos, due to what it called "considerable public unease," with...

When a court-appointed special master last year rejected the claim of an Alabama couple that their daughter had suffered seizures after a vaccination, she explained her decision in part by referring to material from articles in Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia. The reaction from the court above her, the United States Court of Federal Claims, was direct: the materials “culled from the Internet do not — at least on their face — meet” standards of reliability. The court reversed her decision. Oddly, to cite the “pervasive, and for our purposes, disturbing series of disclaimers” concerning the site’s accuracy, the same...

This is just crossing my desk now; nothing follows yet. According to some sources this is the subject of the noon presser.

Police were seeking help Thursday locating a stolen truck that was carrying radioactive material. The white 2001 Ford F-350 was taken Wednesday morning from the Sunlight Food Mart at 1935 South Jupiter Road in Garland. Garland police Lt. Scot Bunch said the truck has a cab-over camper and flames painted on the hood and front quarter panels. It has the name Bonded Inspections Inc. on the sides, and Texas license plate 5YL-T51. ------------------------------------------------------- Anyone with information about the theft or the suspect can call the Garland Police Department at 972-485-4840 or the investigating officer at 972-205-2060.

Two live diamondback rattlesnakes were released in an Arizona movie theater during a showing of the new film "Snakes on a Plane," according to Local 6 News.

Two live rattlesnakes were released in an Arizona theater during a showing of the new film, 'Snakes on a Plane.' The snakes were released after the film began rolling in the dark theater at the AMC Desert Ridge multi-plex at Tatum and the 101 in north Phoenix.

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"NEW YORK (Reuters) - A "Presidential Bust" of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was unveiled on Wednesday at New York's Museum of Sex, where sculptor Daniel Edwards hopes it will spark discussion about sex, politics and celebrity. Edwards, the artist who also created a life-size nude of Britney Spears giving birth on a bear-skin rug, said he wanted to capture Clinton's age and femininity in the sculpture."

A MUSIC teacher and Baptist preacher who has admitted having a lesbian relationship with a teenage student 20 years ago is being sued by the woman for assault and negligence. Louise Audet, 39, told the District Court yesterday she was 15 when the three-year sexual relationship began in mid-1982 with Cheryl Groth at Picton High School. Ms Groth, who is nine years older, befriended the girl as a "special daughter" and told her to call her Mum after she confided in her that she had been sexually abused by her grandfather and siblings and beaten by her father, Mrs Audet...

Recording artist Cindi Lauper performs during the closing ceremony of the Gay Games VII at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) (July 22, 2006)

Letter left by dying man gives clue to investigators· Dozens of others thought to have perished en route The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The yacht was unmarked, 6 metres (20ft) long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful...

PADUCAH, Ky. --The next time Dan McBride rents a car, he may want to inspect it not just for dings and dents but also for snakes. The assistant athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University found a two-foot-long ball python in his rental car this week as he left the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament in Paducah. McBride got into his car Wednesday night with a colleague and saw the snake draped across the console. McBride said he thought it was a rubber snake someone put there as a joke. He even gave the snake a pat and put the car...