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- Dubai 05:43 07:02 12:28 15:26 17:48 19:07
NEW ZEALAND: If you wish to name your new bundle of joy Lucifer or Messiah, you can't be living in New Zealand.
Giving such names to new-borns has effectively banned by the country's names registrar after it knocked back the odd request from three parents, reports Herald Sun.
The country has also ruled out names that use punctuation marks, such as full stops, asterisks, and virgules.
"It has been cracking down on parents getting too creative with their children's names," says the daily.
The list of 102 names rejected in the past two years includes Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight and Mr, all deemed too similar to titles, the paper revealed.
Messiah was also turned down, as was 89, and the letters, C, D, I and T.
The new ruling comes after it was revealed that parents have named their twins "Benson and Hedges" - after the famous cigarette brand, and other names such as Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter.
One little girl was so traumatised by her name, Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii, that she had it legally changed at age nine, said the paper.
DIY dad cuts up son's hand with saw
US: A man was charged with child abuse after it was discovered that he had used a circular saw to cut a plaster cast off the hand of his teenage son, thereby causing severe injuries.
An affidavit from Coral Springs police revealed Lawrence Roberts, 33, used a 25cm saw - usually used to cut wood - to try to cut the purple cast off the right hand of his 15-year-old son about 11am today (local time), Florida's daily Sun Sentinel said.
"The defendant cut off the top of the victim's right thumb, [and] the middle of the victim's right index finger was almost cut entirely off," the affidavit said, according to the paper.
The teenager also received a 7.6cm cut on his right hand, between his thumb and index finger, and was taken to a medical centre for treatment before being moved to another facility for emergency surgery to repair his thumb.
The father, who was charged with aggravated child abuse, was released on $7500 bond.
Farmer catches burglar with a forklift
NORWAY: A faremer caught a thief red-handed and trapped him using his tractor. The burglar was trying to rob a grocery shop in the middle of the night.
The man was laerted to the robbery by a few passers-by who contacted him at his home a few miles away. He ran all the way to his shop.
The burglar panicked and tried to flee in his Mercedes but got stuck on the tractor's forklift when he rammed his car into it, said The Sun.
The farmer who was hailed a hero, used his vehicle to lift the car off the ground. The burglar finally gave up trying to escape, and sat in his car and smoked a few cigarettes and waited for the police to arrive and arrest him.
Wanted: Afghan butcher class for US special forces
WASHINGTON: US special forces in Afghanistan are known for taking out militants in stealthy night raids but commanders now want them to learn how to butcher meat and cook "authentic" meals for village elders.
The military is planning a three-day "abattoir training" course for the highly-trained troops, who will be taught how to slaughter, cure and cook meat in line with Afghan customs, according to US Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
The command issued a request last week for private contractors to organize classes for 132 students on "how to use local Afghan cooking materials and prepare an authentic Afghan meal cooked in the style and presentation that would be expected by local village elders.
The contractor also would teach troops halal slaughter methods in according with Islamic practices, said the Pentagon solicitation, which was first reported by Wired magazine's Danger Room blog.
"The contractor shall provide instruction on how to process and cure meats and vegetables in a culturally sensitive environment," it said.
The request suggests the butchering and cooking skills would help special operations troops forge ties with local Afghans, though the official purpose of the classes was to "provide students with necessary meat butchering training for the Islamic culture."
Apart from butchering meat the Afghan way, the troops will also be taught how to "preserve meat and residual hides" and to bake bread "with raw wheat kernels," it said.
Live shop mannequins spark controversy
MILAN: Live mannequins modelling this season's bikinis in the windows of the Coin department store in Milan -- much to the disapproval of Italy's labour unions -- are a harmless business ploy, the shop said Monday.
"We have been accused of commercialising the human body," Stefano Beraldo, the head of Coin, told journalists.
"But we've not invented anything, it's done all over the world. It's just business," he added.
Italy's main trade union, the left-wing CGIL, had complained about the use of live models in shop windows, stepping in to "protect workers' decorum and customers' intelligence."
But the models, posing in their swimming costumes on a fake beach, defended their right to be there and held up signs saying: "Even being a model is work."
"I don't see anything scandalous about it. We're doing our job and lots of other shops do the same thing. Our job is to advertise objects and clothes," one of the models, 19-year old Matteo Cupelli, told AFP.
"Some passersby are amused, others less so. But lots of young people support us," he said.
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