Today's Odd News - Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Connecticut man shoots burglar dead, turns out to be own son
Fri,28 Sep 2012 11:11 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - A Connecticut man responding to his sister's call for help during an apparent burglary at her home next door, shot and killed a masked intruder who turned out to be his own teenage son, state police said on Friday. Tyler Giuliano, 15, was wearing a ski mask and appeared to be armed when he was shot on Thursday by his father, who authorities declined to identify, said Lieutenant J. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police. The father's sister, who lives next door, was home alone before 1 a.m. when she called him to report someone trying to break into her home. ... Full Story | Top |
San Jose, Costa Rica to install its first street signs
Thu,27 Sep 2012 08:07 PM PDT
Reuters -  SAN JOSE (Reuters) - San Jose, Costa Rica, unveiled plans on Thursday to install its first street signs, so residents will not have to cite local landmarks like fast-food chains or gas stations when giving directions. Municipal workers will install about 22,000 signs and plaques on street corners in the city, home to 1.4 million people, where the current informal system is tolerated by residents, but creates headaches for visitors and the post office. ...
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U.N. chief duped by prank call from fake Canadian PM
Thu,27 Sep 2012 07:56 PM PDT
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A pair of Canadian radio comedians said on Thursday it took them less than an hour to get U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the phone during international diplomacy's busiest week - by pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Ban was between meetings at the U.N. General Assembly of world leaders on Wednesday when he took a phone call from Quebec comedy duo "The Masked Avengers," famous for tricking celebrities and politicians. ...
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Auction of $7 Renoir canceled, may be stolen from Baltimore museum
Thu,27 Sep 2012 06:51 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Virginia auction house on Thursday canceled the sale of a Renoir painting bought at a flea market for $7 after signs the work was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art decades ago. The painting "Paysage Bords de Seine" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir was to have gone under the hammer on Saturday but ownership questions halted the sale, said Lucie Holland, a spokeswoman for Potomack Co, the Alexandria, Virginia, auctioneer. "The rest of the auction will go on, but the Renoir has been withdrawn," she said. ... Full Story | Top |
French centenarian cyclist aims for 100 km record
Thu,27 Sep 2012 04:51 PM PDT
Reuters -  LYON, France (Reuters) - A French centenarian will try to ride his way into the record books on Friday by becoming the fastest cyclist of his age to cover 100 km (62 miles). Robert Marchand, a former fireman and boxing enthusiast from Paris, has been training every day for months in hopes of crossing the finish line in less than five hours. At nearly 101 years old, Marchand claims to have covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres on his bicycle during his lifetime and said he plans to cover the distance at a speed of 22.5 km/h. ...
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Australians suddenly richer as statistician "finds" $338 billion
Wed,26 Sep 2012 11:19 PM PDT
Reuters -  SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians are suddenly a whole lot better off after the government statistician "found" A$325 billion ($338 billion) in share assets previously unrecognized. The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday released its latest report on household assets which included massive upward revisions to estimates for equity holdings. Total financial assets were now put at A$3.1 trillion at the end of March, compared to the originally reported A$2.77 trillion. The revision is worth roughly A$14,380 for every one of the country's 22.6 million people. ...
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Colorado "Frozen Dead Guy" festival to go on with or without corpse
Wed,26 Sep 2012 07:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  DENVER (Reuters) - The frozen corpse that has inspired a Colorado town's whimsical "Frozen Dead Guy Days" celebration may soon be put on ice somewhere else, but festival organizers said the body's removal will not have a chilling effect on the annual event. "We will continue on whether or not Bredo Morstoel is here," festival owner Amanda MacDonald said Wednesday of the man whose body has been packed in dry ice outside Nederland, Colorado, since 1993. ...
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Arizona man arrested for fake grenade launcher stunt
Wed,26 Sep 2012 04:37 PM PDT
Reuters - PHOENIX (Reuters) - Police have arrested an Arizona man who filmed his 16-year-old nephew walking city streets dressed in a sheet and carrying a fake grenade launcher in an apparent bid to test police responses after the Denver theater shooting, authorities said on Wednesday. Michael David Turley, 39, was arrested on Monday over the making of the video, in which an unidentified narrator says he aims to "find out how safe I really am" in Phoenix following the July Denver shooting that killed 12 people and wounded 58. ... Full Story | Top |
Banned Bosnia candidate proud of "porn" campaign
Wed,26 Sep 2012 08:03 AM PDT
Reuters -  ZENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) - A Bosnian man who was banned from running in next month's local elections for using pornographic images on the Internet as part of his campaign says he will fight to be reinstated and get a chance to turn his town into "Hollywood". "Seven days after my campaign began, the whole planet is talking about me," Mirad Hadziahmetovic told Reuters. "I think I have had a super campaign and proved to be the best market expert in Bosnia. ...
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Turkish divers "rescue" blow-up sex doll from sea
Sun,23 Sep 2012 11:38 AM PDT
Reuters - ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish rescue workers retrieved an inflatable sex doll from the Black Sea after police were notified by panicked residents who mistook it for a woman's body floating offshore, Milliyet newspaper reported on Sunday. Police cordoned off a wide stretch of beach in northern Samsun province and sent a team of divers into the water to rescue what appeared to be a drowning woman, it said. The team quickly discovered it was in fact a blow-up doll, which they deflated before throwing in the garbage, the daily said. It was not clear where the blow-up doll had came from. ... Full Story | Top |
Blowhard silencer, dead-fish brain science win spoof Nobel prizes
Thu,20 Sep 2012 07:50 PM PDT
Reuters -  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Psychologists who discovered that leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller, neuroscientists who found brain activity in a dead salmon, and designers of a device that can silence blowhards are among the winners of Ig Nobel prizes for the oddest and silliest real discoveries. The annual prizes are awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research as a whimsical counterpart to the Nobel prizes, which will be announced early next month. Former winners of the real Nobels hand out the Ig Nobel awards at a ceremony held at Harvard University in Massachusetts. ...
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Congo questions Tintin's cultural status ahead of Francophonie
Thu,20 Sep 2012 09:35 AM PDT
Reuters -  KINSHASA (Reuters) - Any Tintin fan would feel at home in the small wooden shed in a back street of Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, where the shelves are crammed with brightly painted statues from the famous Belgian cartoon character's adventures. Friendly faces are everywhere - the tufted-haired Tintin, the bearded Captain Haddock and the bumbling policemen Thomson & Thompson - lovingly carved from wood and carefully painted in bold colors. ...
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Unaware of pregnancy, British soldier has baby in Afghanistan
Thu,20 Sep 2012 01:38 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier who did not realize she was pregnant has given birth to a baby boy at the Camp Bastion field hospital in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) in London said mother and baby were in stable condition and a specialist "Paediatric Retrieval Team" would fly out from Britain to care for them during the long flight home. "It is not military policy to allow servicewomen to deploy on operations if they are pregnant. In this instance, the MOD was unaware of her pregnancy," the ministry said. ...
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Planes of the future could fly on sawdust or straw
Wed,19 Sep 2012 10:26 AM PDT
Reuters - TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Passenger jets could be chomping on straw or flying on fuel extracted from sawdust in coming years as the search widens for cleaner alternatives to kerosene, French scientists say. The "ProBio3" project, started in early July and co-financed by a French government economic stimulus program, aims to use traditional horse-bedding materials to develop a new kind of biofuel that can be used in a 50/50 blend alongside kerosene. ... Full Story | Top |
Tourist-bashing turns ugly in Berlin
Mon,17 Sep 2012 11:35 AM PDT
Reuters -  BERLIN (Reuters) - Tourism to Berlin is booming as never before and filling the debt-ridden city's coffers with much-needed cash, but not all Berliners are cheering the influx of visitors. Some blame the tourists, especially the young 20-something "Easyjet set" who ride the budget airline to party through the night in the uber-cool, hedonistic German capital, for a host of ills from rising rents to noise pollution. "Noisy tourists go home!" reads one hostile sign in the eastern district of Friedrichshain. "Berlin doesn't love you," say stickers plastering traffic lights in nearby Kreuzberg. ...
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Publicist sues editor after NY Fashion Week dustup over seats
Thu,13 Sep 2012 12:27 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prized seats at celebrity-studded New York Fashion Week are so coveted that a dispute over one allegedly prompted a slap in the face. A New York publicist has sued a French magazine editor and her mother, a publishing executive, for $1 million after a fight over front-row seats at a Zac Posen show. Lynn Tesoro filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against Jalouse editor Jennifer Eymere and Marie-Jose Susskind-Jalou in Manhattan state Supreme Court. It claims "assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, slander and/or libel. ... Full Story | Top |
Porn producer to recall DVDs punning on Ben & Jerry's flavors
Wed,12 Sep 2012 07:45 AM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A movie studio has agreed to recall pornographic DVDs whose titles and packaging mimic those of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Caballero Video also agreed to stop marketing and to destroy materials used to make 10 titles in its "Ben & Cherry's" X-rated film series while a lawsuit against it is pending. Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc, a unit of London-based Unilever Plc, had sued Caballero on September 5 for trademark infringement. ... Full Story | Top |
Elephants play truant from Copenhagen circus
Wed,12 Sep 2012 07:15 AM PDT
Reuters - COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Two elephants said goodbye to the circus and took a walk along a Copenhagen street packed with rush-hour traffic on Wednesday, one following the other with trunk linked to tail. Sonia, 31, and Vana Mana, 41, star turns at the Circus Benneweis, strolled down the multi-lane Borups Alle in the Danish capital for about 200 meters before their trainer caught up with them. "They were walking past the morning traffic trunk-to-tail," a police officer told Danish news agency Ritzau. Police blocked the road so the tuskers could return to the circus site unhurt. ... Full Story | Top |
Alaska fisherman survives 26 hours floating in fish crate
Tue,11 Sep 2012 04:09 PM PDT
Reuters - ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaska fisherman survived for a day floating on frigid ocean waters in a plastic fish crate after his boat sank and said he kept up his spirits by singing. Ryan Harris, 19, told the local newspaper in Sitka, Alaska, that he sang songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to keep himself awake through the night as the fishing crate bobbed on the waves. Harris told the Sitka Sentinel that he gave himself a "pep talk," saying for hours on end: "I'm Ryan Hunter Harris and I'm not going to die here. ... Full Story | Top |
Morgan Freeman is alive, no matter what Facebook says
Mon,10 Sep 2012 05:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Breathe easy, Morgan Freeman fans - the internet has once again failed to kill off the "Shawshank Redemption" star, despite its best efforts. Freeman was once again the victim of an online death hoax this week, after a Facebook page announcing the 75-year-old actor's demise amassed more than 842,000 "likes." "At about 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, our beloved actor Morgan Freeman passed away due to a artery rupture," the page reads. "Morgan was born on June 1, 1937. He will be missed but not forgotten. ...
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Facebook pix spat sparks Philadelphia plane bomb hoax
Fri,7 Sep 2012 01:11 PM PDT
Reuters -  PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A man avenging his girlfriend over a questionable Facebook photograph was charged on Friday with falsely reporting explosives aboard a plane that was ordered to return to Philadelphia Airport, authorities said. Kenneth Smith Jr., 26, was charged with using a telephone to convey false information about the woman's former boyfriend, who was a passenger aboard the US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Dallas on Thursday. ...
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Ryanair plane disinfected after insect bite complaints
Fri,7 Sep 2012 10:16 AM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Irish low-cost airline Ryanair said it took a plane out of service at the request of Italian health authorities after passengers complained of insect bites, and had it disinfected before being returned to service. Ryanair said on Friday two passengers who traveled from Billund, Denmark to Ciampino, Italy, had made a complaint while waiting in the terminal to collect baggage. "As the source of these alleged insect bites was unknown, Ryanair was happy to disinfect the aircraft overnight before returning it to service on Friday September 7," it said. ... Full Story | Top |
Condom company fined for using French town's name
Thu,6 Sep 2012 10:54 AM PDT
Reuters - BORDEAUX (Reuters) - A maker of condoms purported to be from the town of Condom in southwestern France has been ordered to pay 10,000 euros ($12,600) for false advertising after the provenance of its prophylactics was found to be Malaysia. "The Original Condom Company" advertised its condoms as coming from the picturesque forested town on the river Baise. However a court in the city of Bordeaux has ordered the firm, run by two Frenchmen, to remove references to the town from its advertising, as only an unoccupied address could be found there. ... Full Story | Top |
Dutch province tilts at (real) windmills
Wed,5 Sep 2012 08:54 AM PDT
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands has been famous for its windmills for centuries but now one of its most populous provinces has said it wants to ban their modern-day incarnations - wind turbines - on the grounds that they are ugly and noisy. The government of North Holland, home to the Netherlands' largest city, Amsterdam, has authorized a giant wind power project in the north of the province and had been considering applications to construct 20 similar projects. ... Full Story | Top |
Chinese tourist accused of swallowing $13,600 diamond at Sri Lanka fair
Wed,5 Sep 2012 06:11 AM PDT
Reuters - COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police arrested a Chinese tourist suspected of swallowing a diamond worth 1.8 million rupees ($13,600) on Wednesday at the island nation's biggest international gem and jewelry exhibition. Chow Cheng, 32, is believed to have swallowed the diamond as he inspected it at the exhibition, attended by buyers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Europe, police said. "His intention was to steal it," Police Spokesman Ajith Rohana told Reuters. "The x-ray shows the diamond is in his throat. ... Full Story | Top |
Dutch police release piano-playing break-in artist
Tue,4 Sep 2012 01:46 AM PDT
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police arrested and then released without charge a homeless man who triggered an alarm after breaking into a music shop to play the piano and get some sleep. The 60-year-old man, who once studied music and is now homeless, smashed the music shop's window in the northern Dutch town of Assen in search of a place to sleep on Sunday. A spokesman for the police in Assen said he played well. "He told my colleagues he had studied the piano for seven years," Dirk Neef said. The man was released without charge on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
Swazi virgins dance in unity, defy criticism
Tue,4 Sep 2012 12:03 AM PDT
Reuters - LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland (Reuters) - Thousands of bare-breasted young Swazi women paraded in front of their king to celebrate chastity and unity, dismissing criticism of the lavish ceremony in one of Africa's poorest countries for its last absolute monarch. Clad in beaded mini-skirts and clutching machetes and mobile phones, women and girls as young as five danced and sang tributes on Sunday and Monday to the king and queen mother, also known as the Great She-Elephant, in a traditional Umhlanga Reed Dance meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity. ... Full Story | Top |
Love-triangle books a headache for France's Hollande
Thu,30 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Stuck with dismal approval ratings for his presidential debut, France's Francois Hollande is now having his private life raked over in a series of books that dissect the alleged jealousy between his current and former companions. Despite Hollande's insistence he wants his home life kept private, public interest has been rife since first lady Valerie Trierweiler sent a "killer tweet" in June that exposed the animosity between her and Segolene Royal, the president's partner up to mid-2007. ...
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Arizona drifter jailed for skinning cat, wearing tail
Wed,29 Aug 2012 05:35 PM PDT
Reuters - PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona drifter who skinned a cat and wore its tail and innards around his neck was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday. An Arizona Superior Court judge also sentenced Russell Christopher Hofstad, 25, to four years probation on his release, the Maricopa County Attorney's office said. Hofstad pleaded no contest last month to a felony animal cruelty charge and guilty to a burglary charge. According to the criminal complaint, police arrested Hofstad in January after he broke into a Phoenix warehouse used as a music venue. ... Full Story | Top |
UK firemen called to rescue cow stuck up a tree
Wed,29 Aug 2012 08:51 AM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - A cow had to be rescued by fire services in northern England after it tumbled down a 30 meter river embankment and got stuck in a tree. Fire crews in Cumbria were surprised to receive a call to rescue the cow, which had toppled 10 meters down a slope of the river Leith before a tree broke its fall. The bruised bovine was discovered after its farmer noticed one of his cows was missing. The animal was sedated by a vet before being winched out of the tree by firemen using specialist equipment. ... Full Story | Top |
Man apparently attempting Bigfoot hoax killed on Montana highway
Tue,28 Aug 2012 04:14 PM PDT
Reuters - MISSOULA, Montana (Reuters) - A man wearing a bushy, military-style camouflage suit in an apparent attempt to impersonate the mythical creature Bigfoot has died after being struck on a Montana highway by two cars, police said on Tuesday. Randy Lee Tenley, 44, was dressed in a "ghillie" -- an outfit favored by military snipers and game hunters -- and standing in the middle of southbound lanes on U.S. Highway 93 near Kalispell on Sunday when he was struck twice in quick succession, Montana Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Steve Lavin said. ... Full Story | Top |
Italy health minister mulls France-style drinks tax
Mon,27 Aug 2012 06:31 AM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Italy's health minister is considering the inclusion of a tax on drinks deemed unhealthy in a spending bill due to go before the Italian cabinet later this week, a health ministry official said on Monday. The official confirmed Health Minister Renato Balduzzi may propose a drinks tax of 3 euro cents a bottle to raise revenues of 250 million euros ($312.9 million), but did not clarify which beverages would be affected. ... Full Story | Top |
Mud runs draw the fit and their muck-caked friends
Mon,27 Aug 2012 02:24 AM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mud runs, essentially military-style obstacle races in muck, might appall the neat freak but for some people mud is the medium for a challenging test of true grit and fitness. Neal Pire, owner of Inspire Training Systems, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, has trained several people for mud runs, which come in varying lengths and levels of difficulty and appeal to people who enjoy performing and withstanding the elements. "Most of the people I've seen do it are the extreme fitness enthusiasts," said Pire, an expert with the American College of Sports Medicine. ...
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"Go-Topless Day" in New York seeks equal rights to bare chests
Sun,26 Aug 2012 01:51 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some two dozen topless women protested in a New York City park on a hot, sweaty Sunday as part of what they called "National Go-Topless Day" to draw attention to inequality in topless rights between men and women. There were topless men in the park, too, but nobody paid them much attention, a disparity, organizers said, that demonstrated the need for the event. The topless women drew crowds of onlookers who took pictures and video with their cell phones. ... Full Story | Top |
Norwegian gallery loses a Rembrandt in the mail
Thu,23 Aug 2012 05:24 PM PDT
Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian art gallery lost a Rembrandt etching worth up to $8,600 in the mail after trying to save money on courier and insurance costs, the gallery's chief said on Thursday. The Soli Brug Gallery in Greaaker, about 80 kilometers south of Oslo, purchased a copy of Rembrandt's 'Lieven Willemsz, van Coppenol, Writing-Master' made in around 1658 from a British dealer, only to have it lost in the Norwegian postal system. "Using a courier or special insurance is quite expensive so we have used regular mail until now," Ole Derje, the gallery's chairman said. ... Full Story | Top |
Nepali man bites snake to death in revenge attack
Wed,22 Aug 2012 11:10 PM PDT
Reuters - KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A Nepali man who was bitten by a cobra snake bit it back and killed the reptile in a tit-for-tat attack, a newspaper said on Thursday. Nepali daily Annapurna Post said Mohamed Salmo Miya chased the snake, which bit him in his rice paddy on Tuesday, caught it and bit it until it died. "I could have killed it with a stick but bit it with my teeth instead because I was angry," the 55-year-old Miya, who lives in a village some 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, was quoted by the daily as saying. ... Full Story | Top |
Gibbons on helium sing like opera stars
Wed,22 Aug 2012 09:30 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Gibbons are jungle divas. The small apes use the same technique to project their songs through the forests of southeast Asia as top sopranos singing at the New York Metropolitan Opera or La Scala in Milan. That was the conclusion of research by Japanese scientists who tested the effect of helium gas on gibbon calls to see how their singing changed when their voices sounded abnormally high-pitched. Just like professional singers, the experiment found the animals were able to amplify the higher sounds by adjusting the shape of their vocal tract, including the mouth and tongue. ...
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Finn throws Olympic distance with old Nokia
Sat,18 Aug 2012 01:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  SAVONLINNA, Finland (Reuters) - A Finnish teenager won a mobile phone throwing contest on Saturday by hurling his old Nokia phone 101.46 meters. The annual contest is one of many offbeat events such as wife-carrying that are held in the summer when normally reserved Finns like to celebrate the warmer weather with silliness and outdoor sport. Ere Karjalainen, who beat around 50 contestants, including some who had travelled from England and India, said he had practiced only once and prepared mainly "by drinking". ...
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Pigs and squatters threaten Peru's Nazca lines
Fri,17 Aug 2012 02:21 PM PDT
Reuters -  LIMA (Reuters) - Squatters have started raising pigs on the site of Peru's Nazca lines - the giant designs best seen from an airplane that were mysteriously etched into the desert more than 1,500 years ago. The squatters have destroyed a Nazca-era cemetery and the 50 shacks they have built border Nazca figures, said Blanca Alva, a director at Peru's culture ministry. ...
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Brooklyn bar owner accuses police of draining his liquor stock
Thu,16 Aug 2012 04:16 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The owner of a Brooklyn bar is suing New York City after police emptied the bar's entire stock of alcohol down the drain in a liquor license dispute, according to court papers. David Kelleran, 51, claimed in his lawsuit that the police's Prohibition-style tactics violated state law and trampled on his rights. And, in any case, the police got the wrong address. Kelleran, who owns the restaurant called 68, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages for the loss of alcohol worth "thousands of thousands" of dollars, his attorney Craig Trainor said on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
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