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LIMA, Peru (AP) — "They call me the hardware store," says Requelme Abanto from his hospital bed in northern Peru. Doctors in the city of Cajamarca said they removed 1.5 pounds of metal from Abanto's stomach, including nails, coins, and rusted copper wire and scrap metal. Cajamarca hospital surgeon Carlos Delgado told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's never seen anything like what he found in last week's operation. "We went in thinking it could be appendicitis, but weren't we surprised by what we found — a hole in his stomach," Delgado said. Delgado said specialists are examining Abanto's mental health as he recovers. The 26-year-old construction worker ate the metal for months, and told Peru's Channel 9 television that he may now do it in public "as sport." "I swallowed 17 nails in February and didn't die," he said. "Five-inch nails, all in one day." Source
A party promoter has banned "metrosexuals" from a popular club night in a bid to stamp out violence. The promoter, credited with bringing the Perth-based event Dorcia to Melbourne in September, warned punters they would not get in wearing trademark metrosexual attire - for example, low-cut V-neck T-shirts, skinny jeans and pointed white shoes. Scott Mellor said the move was made to end a "sports jock mentality" and a growing trend of aggression inside clubs and bars. "We are really trying to push a party night that is a safe place to go and have a good time without worrying about safety," the 27-year-old said. "We wanted to shed light on the problems with nightlife in Australia. We took everything that we disliked about going out to clubs and inverted it ... no dressing up like David Beckham. "We are about creating an environment where people can be comfortable and confident." Posters advertising the Dorcia event hosted by city venue the Ding Dong Lounge warn patrons: "No metrosexual attire, no aggression, no problems." Popular brand Ed Hardy tops the list of unacceptable clothing, as does "fight fashion" from brands such as Tapout. Other faux pas include pointed leather shoes, shirts with numbers on them, tight T-shirts and polo shirts with popped collars. Men sporting blond tips or dyed rats' tails will also be turned away. Management also warned that ejected troublemakers would be photographed for a "name and shame" wall just inside the entrance. "We are not turning away people who look after themselves, wear product in their hair or dress with a degree of style," Mr Mellor said. "We are simply providing a venue for people who don't subscribe to the standards of 90 per cent of other clubs." But Eve nightclub boss Nick Russian said the initiative seemed unfair. "I think you find the people who make an effort are the people who've come out for a good time, and the last thing on their agenda is starting fights," Mr Russian said. He said that a lot of clubs kept a strict dress code with that in mind. "The main objective is for people to come with the right attitude. If people are drunk or aggressive they won't get in." Melbourne councillor Jennifer Kanis said nightclub owners and managers had the right to refuse entry. "But I expect refusal to be based on demonstrated antisocial behaviour rather than discriminating against a person or group of people because of the way they dress," Cr Kanis said. Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Szoke said everybody was entitled to service without discrimination. "It is against the law to refuse a person service on the basis of age, sex, physical features, race and a range of other characteristics," she said. Source
A hungry dog is being blamed turning on the heat under a chip pan which set fire to his owner's kitchen - causing £6,000 damage. Paul Gregson believes his pet retriever Alfie was looking for food when he jumped up and nudged a switch on the family's range oven, reports the Daily Post. Mr Gregson, 42, of Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd, said: "We're calling him Alfie the arsonist now." Fortunately Mr Gregson, his wife and their sons Charlie, 10, and Patrick, seven, - and Alfie - all escaped from their burning home unhurt. He said: "The dog sleeps in a basket in the kitchen. He went on top of the cooker looking for something to eat. He kicked a switch and there happened to be a chip fryer on top, which went up." Three-year-old Alfie is a liver-coloured, flat-coated retriever who Mr Gregson described as "very lively, bouncy and smelly". "The breed is a cross between a pointer and a red setter. They are slow to mature - if they mature at all. He exists to eat. He's a walking stomach," he said. The Gregsons were awoken by smoke detectors at midnight. Mr Gregson said: "At first we were disorientated. We thought 'What the hell's that noise?' My wife then rang for the fire brigade and we went downstairs and got everyone out the door. "The fire brigade were incredible. They got here in less than five minutes." Source
TAMPA — Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him. That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions. What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist. Police say Bruce offered several reasons to explain his actions: The man tried to rob him. The man grabbed Bruce's crotch and made an overt sexual advance in perfect English. The man yelled "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," the same words some witnesses said the Fort Hood shooting suspect uttered last week. "That's what they tell you right before they blow you up," police say Bruce told them. Bruce ended up in jail, accused of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He was released Tuesday on $7,500 bail. Marakis ended up at the hospital with stitches. He told the police he didn't want to press charges, espousing biblical forgiveness. But Tuesday, Bruce wasn't saying sorry. Source
Visitors to a New Zealand acquatic centre were stunned to see one shark give another shark an impromptu caesarean section. Staff at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland were initially dubious when visitors came running to tell them there were baby sharks spilling from a wound in a female school shark's stomach - courtesy of a large bite by another shark. But they found a female with a large gaping stomach wound and four babies swimming in the tank. Kelly Tarlton's aquarist Fiona Davies said it was common for sharks to take chunks out of each other, even in the wild, but she had never heard of anything like this. "It had to bite a certain part to let them out and do it without killing them [the babies] or her [the mother]." Ms Davies said the unusual delivery had probably saved the baby sharks' lives. Staff did not know the mother was pregnant and, had she given birth naturally, most likely at night, the babies would have been eaten by adult sharks and stingrays before staff could rescue them. The young sharks have been taken to a "nursery" tank with some baby eagle rays, where visitors can see them before they are released into the wild. Source
WI-- A love-struck buck ran out of luck a week ago. The seven-point buck was killed when it rammed a 640-pound concrete statue of an elk in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye's home in rural Viroqua. Bucks often fight during the breeding season, commonly called the rut. Dominant bucks defend breeding territories and female deer by sparring with subordinate bucks. Antler battles sometimes result in the death of one or both deer, but usually end with the biggest buck winning and the smaller buck high-tailing it out to another area. Mark Brye, who owns Brye Plumbing in Viroqua, was still laughing about the suicidal buck he found near his elk statue last week. Brye said his morning ritual is to rise early and look out at the life-like statue about 40 yards from his home. "Our son and daughter gave it to us for Christmas four years ago because we like to hunt elk," Brye said. "The elk is a nice thing to see every morning. It looks pretty cool, especially on a foggy morning." Brye said he knew exactly what happened when he saw the statue tipped over. Although they were about the same height, the statue weighed at least three times more than the 180-pound deer. He didn't realize the buck lay dead a short distance away. "I could tell the buck poked the statue a couple of times by the chipped paint on it," Brye said, adding that the buck eventually rammed it like a mountain goat. The buck apparently staggered about 20 feet and fell. Brye claimed the buck with a tag from the Vernon County conservation warden. He laughed at the warden's tag note: "lawn ornament fight - lost." Brye said the deer shattered its skull. The antlers were still on its head but were dangling. "The statue is OK, but the antlers broke off when it tipped over," Brye said. "One side of the antlers is in one piece, but the other side is in five pieces." Brye, 58, is considering removing the antlers from the unlucky buck and gluing them on the elk statue as a remembrance of the strange but true story. The deer is butchered and in Brye's freezer. The elk remains on its side. "I can't tip it back up until I get a whole bunch of guys to help me," he said. Source
GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) - A middle school in North Carolina is selling test scores to students in a bid to raise money. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that a parent advisory council at Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro come up with the fundraiser plan after last year's chocolate sale flopped. The school will sell 20 test points to students for $20. Students can add 10 extra points to each of two tests of their choice. The extra points could take a student from a "B'' to an "A'' on those tests or from a failing grade to a passing grade. Principal Susie Shepherd says it's not enough of an impact to change a student's overall grades. Officials at the state Department of Public Instruction say exchanging grades for money teaches children the wrong lessons.\ Source
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to come up with a way to keep church traditions alive for the faithful without the fear of contracting swine flu -- an electronic holy water dispenser. The terracotta dispenser, used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco, functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public washrooms -- a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water. "It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it," said Father Pierangelo Motta. Catholics entering and leaving churches usually dip their hands into fonts full of holy water -- which has been blessed by a priest -- and make the sign of the cross. But fear of contracting the H1N1 virus has led many in Italy -- where some 15 people have died of swine flu -- not to dip their hands in the communal water font. "It's great," said worshipper Marta Caimm as she entered the church. "Thanks to this we are not worried about catching swine flu. It is the right thing for the times," she said. Luciano Marabese, who invented the dispenser, said he did so out of concern that fear of swine flu was eroding traditions. And he is now blessing himself all the way to the bank. "After all the news that some churches, like Milan's cathedral, were suspending the use of holy water fonts as a measure against swine flu, demands for my invention shot to the stars. I have received orders from all over the world," he said. Source
MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee Army reservist's military identification earned him some street cred Tuesday, when he says four men who mugged him at gunpoint returned his belongings and thanked him for his service after finding the ID. The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets, he said. But the hostile tone quickly changed when one of the robbers, whom the reservist presumed was the leader, saw an Army ID in the wallet. The robber told the others to return the items and they put most of his belongings on the ground next to him, including the wrapper, the reservist said. "The guy continued to say throughout the situation that he respects what I do and at one point he actually thanked me and he actually apologized," said the reservist, who asked not to be identified Tuesday because the robbers still had his keys. The reservist said he asked the men, who all had hoods or hats covering their faces, if he could get up and they said he could before starting to walk away. "The leader of the group actually walked back, gave me a quick fist bump, which was very strange," he said. Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said the reservist is credible and that officers still were looking for the suspects Tuesday. The reservist didn't realize until later that his keys were not with him and he doesn't know if the robbers intended to keep those, he said. Still, he said he feels lucky. "I'm just kind of awe struck that everything was given back to me due to just being in the military, " he said. "I realize in pretty much every other situation that wouldn't happen." He said he's never been deployed, only having signed up for the Army Reserves about a year ago. He said he is the first person in his immediate family to join the military. Source
St. Paul, Minn. — A Golden Valley day care provider used pajamas as straitjackets and pinned young children in her care to mattresses as a form of punishment, authorities said in charges filed in Hennepin County District Court. The charges filed Monday against Arvilla Marie Lilly Meinhardt, 70, said police found pajamas with large safety pins in them and a mattress that appeared to have pin holes in it at the home day care center Meinhardt runs for children under age 4. Police found out about Meinhardt's alleged punishment tactic from a 7-year-old girl who used to attend the day care. Meinhardt was charged with malicious punishment of a child and false imprisonment, which are both gross misdemeanors. According to the criminal complaint, Meinhardt told a police detective she had been using the practice to control children for about eight years on children who were 2 and 3 years old. A straitjacket was created by taking a child's arms out of the pajama sleeves and pinning the sleeves behind their backs, Meinhardt said, according to court documents. The pajama legs would be pinned together at the children's calves. The pajama zipper would also be pinned so that the children could not get out of the pajamas, she told police. Meinhardt did not tell children's parents about the practice, authorities said. Meinhardt, along with her husband and daughter, were arrested Friday but have since been released. Meinhardt's husband and daughter have not been charged with any crimes. Meinhardt's attorney, John Leunig, said Tuesday that he's unhappy prosecutors and reports in the news media are making it look like his client is some kind of monster. Leunig said Meinhardt has a clean criminal record. "The truth is she has dozens and dozens of happy clients," Leunig said. "She's a nice lady and she's never done anything wrong in her life." Source
