French team mates Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad have been provisionally suspended after trading blows in an extraordinary incident after the 1,500 meters at the Monaco Diamond League. Baala finished ninth in Friday's race while Mekhissi, the Olympic 3,000 steeplechase silver medalist, came in 11th but an attempt to console each other went badly wrong.
At one point Baala head-butted Mekhissi who responded by swinging his arms wildly as he threw a series of punches, some of which missed their intended target.
"Following the unspeakable behavior of Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad ... the president of the French Athletics Federation decided today to hold an emergency disciplinary hearing," a federation statement said on Saturday.
"At the same time the federal office under the general regulations has decided on a temporary suspension of the two athletes until the meeting of the disciplinary commission. It will meet as an emergency and within eight days."
The pair were separated on the track but the row did not stop there as they exchanged strong words in the media zone after Mekhissi appeared to slap Baala.
"I'm going to break you in two," an angry Baala responded.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Mystery prisoner has authorities stumped
A mystery man arrested on minor charges more than three weeks ago remains behind bars in Utah while law enforcement officials try to determine his true identity, which he refuses to reveal.
"This is really a strange case," said Lt. Dennis Harris with the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "He just doesn't want to be found."
The unidentified man, who has graying hair, a light beard and is believed to be in his 60's, was arrested on July 1 for trespassing in a parking garage.
He was booked into jail on three misdemeanor charges and has thwarted any chance of release, with or without bail, by refusing to identify himself.
"I've been trying to think from A to Z why he would want to stay here ... why he wouldn't give us any information," Harris said.
"He either has to be wanted by some other state or he could be on some other registry or database that has not shown up," he added.
Law enforcement officials say the man is "fairly well spoken and educated," but very guarded about his identity.
As a result of several short conversations with him, officers believe he may not be from Utah.
Officials gave the man a telephone calling card so he might contact friends or relatives, but he has not used it.
"He was very aware of what we were trying to do and he would not give us the slightest bit of information indicating where he was from or anything relating to his family situation," said Harris.
"We've had a lot of people call in but nothing has panned out. Nothing," he added.
Officials say in three weeks of jail the mystery man has shown a pleasant demeanor and has communicated that he is being treated well.
"He said the food has been great," Harris said.
"I realize that sometimes people want to go to jail because they are homeless, have nothing, they are destitute. I've seen that over the years. I just don't get the impression that's the reason. He just doesn't want to be discovered by somebody."
Now in his fourth week of incarceration, the man added another twist to the story recently by hinting he had business of some kind outside prison that he would need to attend to.
"He said there was a point at some time that he would need to get out of jail," Harris said. "That's the closest I can find of what he wants to do. And that makes no sense to me whatsoever."
"This is really a strange case," said Lt. Dennis Harris with the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "He just doesn't want to be found."
The unidentified man, who has graying hair, a light beard and is believed to be in his 60's, was arrested on July 1 for trespassing in a parking garage.
He was booked into jail on three misdemeanor charges and has thwarted any chance of release, with or without bail, by refusing to identify himself.
"I've been trying to think from A to Z why he would want to stay here ... why he wouldn't give us any information," Harris said.
"He either has to be wanted by some other state or he could be on some other registry or database that has not shown up," he added.
Law enforcement officials say the man is "fairly well spoken and educated," but very guarded about his identity.
As a result of several short conversations with him, officers believe he may not be from Utah.
Officials gave the man a telephone calling card so he might contact friends or relatives, but he has not used it.
"He was very aware of what we were trying to do and he would not give us the slightest bit of information indicating where he was from or anything relating to his family situation," said Harris.
"We've had a lot of people call in but nothing has panned out. Nothing," he added.
Officials say in three weeks of jail the mystery man has shown a pleasant demeanor and has communicated that he is being treated well.
"He said the food has been great," Harris said.
"I realize that sometimes people want to go to jail because they are homeless, have nothing, they are destitute. I've seen that over the years. I just don't get the impression that's the reason. He just doesn't want to be discovered by somebody."
Now in his fourth week of incarceration, the man added another twist to the story recently by hinting he had business of some kind outside prison that he would need to attend to.
"He said there was a point at some time that he would need to get out of jail," Harris said. "That's the closest I can find of what he wants to do. And that makes no sense to me whatsoever."
Wild boars invade farms, attack pets
Wild boars are invading the farms of central New York state, attacking livestock, killing family pets and chasing people, experts warned on Friday.
The feral swine are a non-native species suspected of escaping from game farms. As many as a couple of hundred are roaming the state, said Paul Curtis, a natural resources professor at Cornell University in Ithaca.
While an exact picture of the wild boar population in New York State is unclear, a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the swine were successfully breeding in the three counties and producing litters averaging four to six piglets.
"We've shot probably 15 to 20 of them in the last three years," said Peter Andersen, a farmer in Long Eddy in Sullivan County.
"We've shot them right square in the head and the bullet will glance off and they'll get up and go. Their skulls are so thick in the front, if you don't happen to hit it at a perfect 90 degrees, with the way their heads have that kind of curved shape, the bullet will glance right off," he added.
Armed with a $230,000 grant from the Invasive Species Council of New York, the USDA last year sought to control the growing wild boar problem.
According to a USDA report, 27 of the animals were trapped or shot and tested for diseases.
"In the absence of aggressive professional management, these populations will likely continue their expansion and become entrenched in New York State with potentially devastating consequences to natural resources, agriculture, and human health and safety," according to the report.
There have been no reports of feral swine attacks on humans but the animals can be aggressive, experts said.
USDA biologist Justin Gansowski said the swine have reportedly attacked livestock, killed a Labrador retriever and chased people in New York state.
"There's always the potential for attacks on people," said Curtis.
Gansowski said a lack of funding was the biggest obstacle to preventing the population from exploding.
"There needs to be more funding," he said. "That's currently why we only have one person, which is me. With the explosive nature of the feral swine population, our time frame to do something is now."
Andersen agreed that additional funding was needed and added that is losing the battle against the husky invaders.
Desperate residents have formed informal networks to report sightings and call rifle owners to eliminate the swine.
The feral swine are a non-native species suspected of escaping from game farms. As many as a couple of hundred are roaming the state, said Paul Curtis, a natural resources professor at Cornell University in Ithaca.
While an exact picture of the wild boar population in New York State is unclear, a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the swine were successfully breeding in the three counties and producing litters averaging four to six piglets.
"We've shot probably 15 to 20 of them in the last three years," said Peter Andersen, a farmer in Long Eddy in Sullivan County.
"We've shot them right square in the head and the bullet will glance off and they'll get up and go. Their skulls are so thick in the front, if you don't happen to hit it at a perfect 90 degrees, with the way their heads have that kind of curved shape, the bullet will glance right off," he added.
Armed with a $230,000 grant from the Invasive Species Council of New York, the USDA last year sought to control the growing wild boar problem.
According to a USDA report, 27 of the animals were trapped or shot and tested for diseases.
"In the absence of aggressive professional management, these populations will likely continue their expansion and become entrenched in New York State with potentially devastating consequences to natural resources, agriculture, and human health and safety," according to the report.
There have been no reports of feral swine attacks on humans but the animals can be aggressive, experts said.
USDA biologist Justin Gansowski said the swine have reportedly attacked livestock, killed a Labrador retriever and chased people in New York state.
"There's always the potential for attacks on people," said Curtis.
Gansowski said a lack of funding was the biggest obstacle to preventing the population from exploding.
"There needs to be more funding," he said. "That's currently why we only have one person, which is me. With the explosive nature of the feral swine population, our time frame to do something is now."
Andersen agreed that additional funding was needed and added that is losing the battle against the husky invaders.
Desperate residents have formed informal networks to report sightings and call rifle owners to eliminate the swine.
Town asks mayor to quit after bar scuffle
The mayor of a Wisconsin town has been asked to step down following a late-night bar room scuffle, but said on Thursday he would not resign despite a unanimous vote by a city council committee. Bob Ryan, 48, told WHBL-AM radio that he intended to seek outpatient alcohol rehabilitation treatment while continuing to act as mayor of Sheboygan, a city of 50,000 located about an hour north of Milwaukee on the shores of Lake Michigan.
According to a police report, the scuffle occurred early on Monday, when police were summoned by an emergency caller to the Brown Baer tavern in nearby Elkhart Lake, where a man in a blue shirt was said to be causing a disturbance.
When the officer arrived, patrons identified Ryan, who was sitting on the curb wearing a blue shirt, as the man the caller had been complaining about. But because the bar owners said everything was fine and no victim stepped forward, the officer gave Ryan a verbal warning, the police report said.
The Sheboygan Press newspaper posted pictures on its website of a man it identified as Ryan slumped over a table at the bar. It cited witnesses who said Ryan had been drinking and making rude comments to some female bar patrons, leading to the scuffle with another patron.
This is the fourth time in two years that Ryan's use of alcohol has come under scrutiny.
In September 2009, a widely publicized YouTube video showed the mayor making sexually explicit comments about his sister-in-law while he was at a bar.
The cell phone video was released shortly after Angela Payne, the former city human resources director, accused Ryan in a letter of making drunken advances on her at a Sheboygan tavern.
Ryan admitted a relapse in July 2010, saying he went out drinking with his brother, but a city council resolution asking him to resign at the time was voted down 11-5.
The council committee met in closed session on Wednesday night and voted to unanimously to ask Ryan to resign.
To remove Ryan as mayor, a Sheboygan citizen must bring a certified complaint, and the council must vote to remove him, said Alderman James Bohren, the chairman of the committee that asked Ryan to go.
The council was expected to take up that matter on Monday night, Bohren said.
According to a police report, the scuffle occurred early on Monday, when police were summoned by an emergency caller to the Brown Baer tavern in nearby Elkhart Lake, where a man in a blue shirt was said to be causing a disturbance.
When the officer arrived, patrons identified Ryan, who was sitting on the curb wearing a blue shirt, as the man the caller had been complaining about. But because the bar owners said everything was fine and no victim stepped forward, the officer gave Ryan a verbal warning, the police report said.
The Sheboygan Press newspaper posted pictures on its website of a man it identified as Ryan slumped over a table at the bar. It cited witnesses who said Ryan had been drinking and making rude comments to some female bar patrons, leading to the scuffle with another patron.
This is the fourth time in two years that Ryan's use of alcohol has come under scrutiny.
In September 2009, a widely publicized YouTube video showed the mayor making sexually explicit comments about his sister-in-law while he was at a bar.
The cell phone video was released shortly after Angela Payne, the former city human resources director, accused Ryan in a letter of making drunken advances on her at a Sheboygan tavern.
Ryan admitted a relapse in July 2010, saying he went out drinking with his brother, but a city council resolution asking him to resign at the time was voted down 11-5.
The council committee met in closed session on Wednesday night and voted to unanimously to ask Ryan to resign.
To remove Ryan as mayor, a Sheboygan citizen must bring a certified complaint, and the council must vote to remove him, said Alderman James Bohren, the chairman of the committee that asked Ryan to go.
The council was expected to take up that matter on Monday night, Bohren said.
Southern U.S. distillery to legally sell moonshine
Two entrepreneurs are taking advantage of new micro-distillery laws in South Carolina to make and sell traditional moonshine whiskey legally for the first time in the southern state.
The Dark Corner Distillery will open next month in Greenville, where engineer Joe Fenten, 27, and longtime home beer brewer Richard Wenger will produce and sell small batches of 100-proof moonshine from a custom-made copper still.
The distillery, housed in a 1925 building, will also include a tasting bar and a museum dedicated to the history of the Dark Corner, the local mountains that were once full of moonshiners, feud and mayhem, Fenten told Reuters.
The area was settled, along with the nearby Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Scots, Irish and Welsh who migrated down through the Appalachian mountain chain from Pennsylvania in the 1700s.
"They thought it was their inalienable, God-given right to make whiskey," said Fenten, a Dark Corner native. "It was a hard life. If you could make an extra 10 cents more for a gallon of whiskey than you could for a bushel of corn, then why not?"
Moonshine traditionally was the term used to describe illegally distilled corn whiskey often made covertly by the light of the moon. The product made at the new distillery will be un-aged corn whiskey, but will be taxed and regulated.
The area came to be called the Dark Corner in 1832 by South Carolina politicians seeking to nullify federal law and who cursed the people of the mountains as Unionists, said Dean Campbell, a Dark Corner native who is the distillery's official historian.
Whiskey taxes after the Civil War and then Prohibition in the 20th century made the place more lawless, Campbell said.
News accounts in the 1920s called the Dark Corner "a little Chicago" because of federal agents' raids on stills, killings, and gun and knife fights that broke out after church, he said.
Illegal moonshine is still being made there, Campbell said. In June, sheriff's deputies busted a still in Landrum, South Carolina, and confiscated 2,000 gallons of illegal white liquor along with $150,000 in cash.
State lawmakers in 2009 altered existing liquor laws in a way that lessened the financial burden on small distilleries, paving the way for the Dark Corner Distillery to set up shop.
Despite the drink's reputation, legal moonshine makers also have popped up in other states, including Oregon, Wisconsin, Montana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, New York and North Carolina.
The Dark Corner Distillery will open next month in Greenville, where engineer Joe Fenten, 27, and longtime home beer brewer Richard Wenger will produce and sell small batches of 100-proof moonshine from a custom-made copper still.
The distillery, housed in a 1925 building, will also include a tasting bar and a museum dedicated to the history of the Dark Corner, the local mountains that were once full of moonshiners, feud and mayhem, Fenten told Reuters.
The area was settled, along with the nearby Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Scots, Irish and Welsh who migrated down through the Appalachian mountain chain from Pennsylvania in the 1700s.
"They thought it was their inalienable, God-given right to make whiskey," said Fenten, a Dark Corner native. "It was a hard life. If you could make an extra 10 cents more for a gallon of whiskey than you could for a bushel of corn, then why not?"
Moonshine traditionally was the term used to describe illegally distilled corn whiskey often made covertly by the light of the moon. The product made at the new distillery will be un-aged corn whiskey, but will be taxed and regulated.
The area came to be called the Dark Corner in 1832 by South Carolina politicians seeking to nullify federal law and who cursed the people of the mountains as Unionists, said Dean Campbell, a Dark Corner native who is the distillery's official historian.
Whiskey taxes after the Civil War and then Prohibition in the 20th century made the place more lawless, Campbell said.
News accounts in the 1920s called the Dark Corner "a little Chicago" because of federal agents' raids on stills, killings, and gun and knife fights that broke out after church, he said.
Illegal moonshine is still being made there, Campbell said. In June, sheriff's deputies busted a still in Landrum, South Carolina, and confiscated 2,000 gallons of illegal white liquor along with $150,000 in cash.
State lawmakers in 2009 altered existing liquor laws in a way that lessened the financial burden on small distilleries, paving the way for the Dark Corner Distillery to set up shop.
Despite the drink's reputation, legal moonshine makers also have popped up in other states, including Oregon, Wisconsin, Montana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, New York and North Carolina.
Germans brew more beer for first time since 2007
Warm weather and a strong export market in the first six months of the year have helped German brewers reverse a long decline in beer production.
The total volume of beer produced in Germany in the first half rose on an annual basis for the first time in four years, up 1.0 percent to 4.946 billion liters, government data showed Thursday.
"It's definitely down to the temperature," said Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, pointing to an unusually warm April and May that had boosted demand.
The amount of beer produced for domestic consumption in the first six months rose from the first time since the hot summer when Germany hosted the soccer World Cup in 2006, edging up by 0.2 percent.
Although the average German of legal drinking age still puts away about 120 liters of beer a year -- roughly a glass a day -- consumption has fallen in recent years as Germans turn to wine and other beverages.
However, foreigners are developing an increasing taste for German beer -- the ingredients of which have been subject to strict government regulation since the 16th century.
The volume of beer produced for export, just over a tenth of national production, grew by an annual 5.3 percent in the first six months of 2011, with a marked 13.6 percent rise in beer destined for outside the European Union.
Most German brewers are relatively small, privately owned companies, although one of the best known international brands produced in Germany, Beck's, is owned by the world's largest brewer, Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The total volume of beer produced in Germany in the first half rose on an annual basis for the first time in four years, up 1.0 percent to 4.946 billion liters, government data showed Thursday.
"It's definitely down to the temperature," said Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, pointing to an unusually warm April and May that had boosted demand.
The amount of beer produced for domestic consumption in the first six months rose from the first time since the hot summer when Germany hosted the soccer World Cup in 2006, edging up by 0.2 percent.
Although the average German of legal drinking age still puts away about 120 liters of beer a year -- roughly a glass a day -- consumption has fallen in recent years as Germans turn to wine and other beverages.
However, foreigners are developing an increasing taste for German beer -- the ingredients of which have been subject to strict government regulation since the 16th century.
The volume of beer produced for export, just over a tenth of national production, grew by an annual 5.3 percent in the first six months of 2011, with a marked 13.6 percent rise in beer destined for outside the European Union.
Most German brewers are relatively small, privately owned companies, although one of the best known international brands produced in Germany, Beck's, is owned by the world's largest brewer, Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev.
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