Written by Danny Penman
NewsmonsterFri, 25 Apr 2008 05:34 UTC
Christeen Skinner blinks at the screen of her computer and takes another slurp of coffee. It's half past seven in the morning and she's preparing for a crucial meeting with the chief executive of the High and Mighty fashion chain.
Apart from the black cat dozing on her lap, the only clue to Christeen's occupation as a 21st century astrologer is a copy of an Ephemeris that lies open at a page marked "Mercury March 25th".
A successful Saudi businessman from Taif, a city in the Mecca Province, paid his son a $267,000 reward for quitting smoking, the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper said on Thursday.
The son learned of the gift when he asked bank officials why such a large sum had appeared on his account.
"I'm glad that after nine years of smoking my son finally managed to get rid of this bad habit," said the father, whose name was not disclosed.
An eccentric aristocrat who deserted English society to travel the world believed she had found a cure for the plague, letters show.
Lady Hester Stanhope, the niece of the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, claimed to have cured a 12-year-old boy with a mysterious remedy called "serpent stone".
The ingredients are not described, but it is thought to have been a homemade concoction.
Servando Gonzalez
ObServandoMon, 21 Apr 2008 00:47 UTC
Author's warning: The following article is a satire. Even though all the information mentioned in it is true and verifiable, take it with a grain of salt.
Consequently, I am proposing the creation of a special hotline or Web site where people could call or e-mail to report any strange behavior by senior members of our government, Congress, Supreme Court judges, CIA, FBI, FEMA, Office of Homeland Security senior officials, Pentagon generals and senior CFR members.
The information would be checked to make sure the observations were not caused by other circumstances commonly known to affect the behavior of these particular type of two-legged animals, such as lying, stealing, disinforming or prevaricating.
Vice President Dick Cheney has shown off his lighter side, filling in for his boss Wednesday night at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington.
By tradition, the guest of honor pokes a little fun at himself before the audience of media members and guests.
The vice president worked in a reference to Democrat Barack Obama's controversial comments about "bitter" voters and his own hunting mishap. He thanked the attendees for the kind welcome, saying, "You're not the kind to look down on a bitter man who clings to his guns."
Avi Cohen
YnetMon, 21 Apr 2008 11:10 UTC
Young man dressed as yeshiva student undresses at non-kosher supermarket chain, remaining only with sock covering his private parts.
A 27-year-old man, claiming to be a yeshiva student, decided to launch an unusual protest against a court ruling allowing stores and restaurants to sell leavened food during the holiday of Passover.
The man, dressed as a haredi, arrived Monday afternoon at a store belonging to the non-kosher Tiv Taam supermarket chain in the city of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. Upon his arrival, he undressed and remained with only a sock covering his private parts.
The news that Heston "Bacon and Egg Ice-Cream" Blumenthal is to have a hand in revamping the Little Chef chain of service station restaurants has thrown Britain's gastronomic reactionaries - and believe me, they are legion - into a ferment.
"Eggs and bacon were made for the breakfast table, not some poncy ice-cream," roared The Daily Telegraph, no doubt suppressing a florid belch as its morning kippers turned in its stomach.
Israeli police rushed into Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers on Orthodox Palm Sunday, witnesses said.
Some 20 officers intervened after Armenian worshippers threw a Greek Orthodox priest out of the church, sparking a free-for-all, they said.
