Ukrainian police have detained three suspected thieves who they say stole goods from trucks as they drove on highways at night. The three men, aged 32 to 37, are suspected of involvement in about 30 cases of theft in their home Poltava region and neighboring areas, police said in a statement.
"A car with a specially reinforced hood would drive up behind a truck moving at 40-50 kilometers per hour," it said.
"Standing on the hood, one of the thieves would then open the locks with wire-cutters, get in and pass the loot over to his accomplice."
Police said the gang, which had at least seven cars, was the third of its kind to be busted in the last few years in the region.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Putin hails Russian boy as world's "7 billionth"
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed a two-day old Russian boy as the world's seven billionth person Wednesday, weighing into a bizarre scramble to claim a title that is almost impossible to verify. Russia's Pyotr Nikolayev was born on Oct 31, two minutes after midnight in a maternity hospital in Russia's Western exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and the Baltic Sea.
"How did you manage to do it on the very 7 billion mark?" Putin, who is running for president in a March election, asked the child's mother in front of a group of television reporters.
"It was all down to him. I am just a normal mum," Yelena Nikolayeva, replied as she handed the boy to Putin, Russia's paramount leader. The pictures were aired on state television at peak viewing times.
The United Nations says the population reached the 7 billion mark on Oct 31 -- 13 years after reaching 6 billion, and has tried to use the sharp increase to draw attention to the problems of population growth.
Though it is almost impossible to say which person was actually the midnight's child of this billion, there have been claims to the title from people in countries such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Britain.
Local officials in Russia's Far East even awarded a certificate to the mother of another boy, Alexander, that purported to confirm his title as the world's seven billionth person.
A spokesman for the United Nation's Population Fund could not be reached for comment.
"How did you manage to do it on the very 7 billion mark?" Putin, who is running for president in a March election, asked the child's mother in front of a group of television reporters.
"It was all down to him. I am just a normal mum," Yelena Nikolayeva, replied as she handed the boy to Putin, Russia's paramount leader. The pictures were aired on state television at peak viewing times.
The United Nations says the population reached the 7 billion mark on Oct 31 -- 13 years after reaching 6 billion, and has tried to use the sharp increase to draw attention to the problems of population growth.
Though it is almost impossible to say which person was actually the midnight's child of this billion, there have been claims to the title from people in countries such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Britain.
Local officials in Russia's Far East even awarded a certificate to the mother of another boy, Alexander, that purported to confirm his title as the world's seven billionth person.
A spokesman for the United Nation's Population Fund could not be reached for comment.
Sculpture of Ai WeiWei corpse spooks German town
A mock corpse of Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei in an art gallery has caused commotion in a small German town, leading some panicked residents, mistaking the statue for a real body, to alert the police.
The life-size sculpture of a dead-looking Ai -- which lies face-down on the floor in front of large glass windows -- has shocked passersby on the street.
"Several people had already called within days of the exhibition going up," said Peter Steger from the police office in Bad Ems, the town where the work can be seen.
The Chinese artist He Xiangyu said he intended to praise Ai WeiWei's efforts to criticize corruption and censorship in the Chinese government despite the threat of imprisonment.
Ai was detained without charge for 81 days earlier this year, a move by China that drew heavy criticism from Western governments.
Ai said on Tuesday that China's communist government had ordered him to pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in taxes and fines allegedly due from the company he works for.
He Xiangyu used actual human hair hand-knotted onto plastic and fiberglass to create the statue's realistic qualities. The statue in Bad Ems is one of three copies. ($1 = 6.355 Chinese Yuan)
The life-size sculpture of a dead-looking Ai -- which lies face-down on the floor in front of large glass windows -- has shocked passersby on the street.
"Several people had already called within days of the exhibition going up," said Peter Steger from the police office in Bad Ems, the town where the work can be seen.
The Chinese artist He Xiangyu said he intended to praise Ai WeiWei's efforts to criticize corruption and censorship in the Chinese government despite the threat of imprisonment.
Ai was detained without charge for 81 days earlier this year, a move by China that drew heavy criticism from Western governments.
Ai said on Tuesday that China's communist government had ordered him to pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in taxes and fines allegedly due from the company he works for.
He Xiangyu used actual human hair hand-knotted onto plastic and fiberglass to create the statue's realistic qualities. The statue in Bad Ems is one of three copies. ($1 = 6.355 Chinese Yuan)
Owner of car dealership labeled "Taliban Toyota" wins millions
The owner of a large southwest Alabama car dealership derided as "Taliban Toyota" by a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a jury trial for his slander claim. Iranian-born Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Alabama, sought $28 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Bob Tyler Toyota, claiming employees at that Pensacola, Florida-based dealership falsely portrayed him as an Islamist militant to customers.
"The feeling I received in the courtroom for the truth to come out was worth a lot more than any money anybody can give me," Esfahani told Reuters on Tuesday.
Esfahani's lawsuit said that Bob Tyler sales manager Fred Kenner told at least one couple considering buying from Eastern Shore Toyota in 2009 that Esfahani was of Middle Eastern descent and was "helping fund the insurgents there and is also laundering money for them."
Esfahani, a naturalized U.S. citizen, fled his native Iran in 1980 following the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and swept Shi'ite Muslim clergy to power, his lawsuit said. He opened his car dealership in 2007.
The Taliban, by contrast, are hardline Islamists in the central Asian nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan who follow an austere interpretation of Islamic law.
A Bob Tyler salesman was accused of telling the same couple that Esfahani was from Iraq and calling him a "terrorist" who put soldiers including the salesman's brother in harm's way.
"(Esfahani) is funneling money back to his family and other terrorists. I have a brother over there and what you're doing is helping kill my brother," the salesman told the couple when he called them on the Eastern Shore sales floor, according to the suit.
The jury deliberated for three hours before awarding Esfahani $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages on Monday evening.
Bob Tyler's attorney Jeffrey Ingram could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, and Tyler and Kenner both declined to comment on the verdict through a dealership spokesman.
Esfahani said the dollar amount awarded by the jury was irrelevant unless the case sets a precedent by which other business owners can seek recourse against tactics he considers "un-American."
"This case didn't take aim at just Mr. Tyler," he said. "It was intended to address any other business that resorts to those kinds of actions to win at their game unfairly."
"The feeling I received in the courtroom for the truth to come out was worth a lot more than any money anybody can give me," Esfahani told Reuters on Tuesday.
Esfahani's lawsuit said that Bob Tyler sales manager Fred Kenner told at least one couple considering buying from Eastern Shore Toyota in 2009 that Esfahani was of Middle Eastern descent and was "helping fund the insurgents there and is also laundering money for them."
Esfahani, a naturalized U.S. citizen, fled his native Iran in 1980 following the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and swept Shi'ite Muslim clergy to power, his lawsuit said. He opened his car dealership in 2007.
The Taliban, by contrast, are hardline Islamists in the central Asian nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan who follow an austere interpretation of Islamic law.
A Bob Tyler salesman was accused of telling the same couple that Esfahani was from Iraq and calling him a "terrorist" who put soldiers including the salesman's brother in harm's way.
"(Esfahani) is funneling money back to his family and other terrorists. I have a brother over there and what you're doing is helping kill my brother," the salesman told the couple when he called them on the Eastern Shore sales floor, according to the suit.
The jury deliberated for three hours before awarding Esfahani $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages on Monday evening.
Bob Tyler's attorney Jeffrey Ingram could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, and Tyler and Kenner both declined to comment on the verdict through a dealership spokesman.
Esfahani said the dollar amount awarded by the jury was irrelevant unless the case sets a precedent by which other business owners can seek recourse against tactics he considers "un-American."
"This case didn't take aim at just Mr. Tyler," he said. "It was intended to address any other business that resorts to those kinds of actions to win at their game unfairly."
Woman gets cold cash rather than cold cuts
A butcher shop employee in the German town of Braunschweig inadvertently handed a customer a bag containing more than 2,000 euros ($2,835) in cold cash rather than the cold cuts she usually gets. The 79-year-old pensioner paid five euros for her package of cold cuts and veal steaks. She said she was surprised to find more than she bargained for when she opened the package at home.
"I was completely flabbergasted," the pensioner told Bild newspaper. She called the butcher shop but it had already closed. So she called the police, who later returned it.
The owner of the butcher shop had packed the day's take in a paper bag and placed it, as he usually does, next to the cash register. The employee mistook it for the customer's cold cuts and unwittingly handed her the package.
The honest pensioner got a 100 euro reward from the butcher -- and a free basket of sausages.
"I was completely flabbergasted," the pensioner told Bild newspaper. She called the butcher shop but it had already closed. So she called the police, who later returned it.
The owner of the butcher shop had packed the day's take in a paper bag and placed it, as he usually does, next to the cash register. The employee mistook it for the customer's cold cuts and unwittingly handed her the package.
The honest pensioner got a 100 euro reward from the butcher -- and a free basket of sausages.
Sailor falls off boat, saved by mobile call
French sailing star Florence Arthaud fell off her boat during a pee break but rescuers whisked her from Mediterranean waters in the early hours of Sunday after she called her mother by mobile phone. Arthaud, winner in 1990 of the Route du Rhum single-handed transatlantic sailing race, was located and rescued near the island of Corsica thanks to a headlamp and the GPS system on her phone.
"I quite simply fell into the water while preparing to take a pee," the 54-year-old told BFM television.
Arthaud, alone on her 10-meter boat when she fell overboard,
managed to hold her phone, protected by a plastic bag, above water and call her mother to raise the alarm.
"I quite simply fell into the water while preparing to take a pee," the 54-year-old told BFM television.
Arthaud, alone on her 10-meter boat when she fell overboard,
managed to hold her phone, protected by a plastic bag, above water and call her mother to raise the alarm.
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