Man 'cuts off own head with chainsaw'

"A MAN in the German city of Cologne fatally stabbed his elderly father before cutting off his own head with an electric chainsaw, police said yesterday.

The headless body of the 24-year-old offender was found when police raced to an the apartment yesterday after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son's body.

"We do not believe any third party was involved," he said.

Neighbours said the father and son had been reclusive since the death of the mother, allegedly by suicide, several years ago. "


Hmmm... I'm wondering if this actually happened... I notice that when i do a Google search for the words 'cuts off own head with chainsaw' (without the quotes) I get pretty much the exact same story every time. And I don't even mean to say 'pretty much' in the previous sentence... it IS the same story, word for word.

There doesn't appear to be any further details & no followup. Do I dare call shennangigans on this?

Japanese sold sheep instead of poodles

Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.

Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.

That is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan.

The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.

She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.

Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.

One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.

Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.

"We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company were selling sheep as poodles," Japanese police said, the The Sun reported.

"Sadly we think there is more than one company operating in this way.

"The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas - Britain, Australia."

Many of the sheep have now been donated to zoos and farms.




update: Sam has correctly pointed out that the venerable snopes.com has reported this story as false, Dammit.

.. still writhing octopus tentacles on a dinner plate in korea ..

KUALA LUMPUR: Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, the Sultan of Terengganu, will officially ascend the throne as the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong today in an installation ceremony steeped in tradition.


The rich royal traditions and customs of the installation ceremony will be held at the Balairong Seri or Throne Room of Istana Negara at 10am.

The hour-long ceremony to be broadcast live by Radio Televisyen Malaysia will begin with the blowing of the nafiri, announcing the arrival of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah at the Balairong Seri.

It will be followed by the haunting strains of the Kumpulan Nobat Diraja Terengganu, or the Terengganu Royal Ensemble, rendering the song Raja Berangkat accompanying their majesties to the throne.

The ceremony will be attended by the rulers, members of the royal household, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, ministers, heads of state governments, members of the foreign diplomatic corps and local and foreign guests.

The arrival of Tuanku Mizan, 45, and Tuanku Nur Zahirah, 33, at the Balairong Seri will be led by the Grand Chamberlain Tengku Farouk Tengku Jalil and bearers of the "Mace of the Universe" and the "Mace of Religion".

Both the sceptres are made of silver and form part of the royal regalia symbolising the royal authority of the government of Malaysia.

They will be accompanied by his majesty’s footmen and bearers of the royal regalia.

Tuanku Mizan will be in the official ceremonial attire of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the "Muskat" comprising the black royal jacket embroidered in gold thread, long black pants, together with the Tengkolok (Royal Head-Dress), which is intricately woven with gold thread.

The king will wear the "Royal Buckle" or the Pending which is made of gold and decorated with 11 rubies, and an engraved centrepiece featuring the federal government crest, while the belt is made of heavy ribbed silk and embroidered with floral motifs in gold thread.

From his waist will hang the "Royal Short Kris" made of ancient kris blades and ivory studded with gold engravings.

Tuanku Nur Zahirah will be in the ceremonial dress of the Raja Permaisuri Agong, crowned with the "Royal Tiara" or Gendik Diraja and will wear the Kalung Diraja or "Royal Necklace".

Both the tiara and necklace are made of platinum and studded with diamonds.

After the grand chamberlain presents a copy of the Quran to the king, the prime minister will read the "Letter of Proclamation".

The grand chamberlain will after that present the government kris or the "Royal Long Dagger", the symbol of power and authority, to the king.

The king will give his pledge as the "Paramount Ruler of Malaysia" and the nobat will render the Raja Bertabal (The King is Crowned) and this will be followed with shouts of Daulat Tuanku.

This will then be followed by a 21-gun salute and the rendition of the Negaraku by the Royal Malaysia Police band.

Abdullah will then on behalf of the government and people of Malaysia congratulate and pledge loyalty to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, to be followed by the king delivering his royal address.

Tuanku Mizan was elected the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong at a special meeting of the "Conference of Rulers" on Nov 3 last year to succeed the 12th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail whose five-year term ended on Dec 12, 2006.

from New Straits Times

.. of Ubuntu linux & taco mix ..

Evan from Datacom is here in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of months. Hi Ev. His girlfriend has just come over for a week and was kind enough to bring me the one thing that I have had significant trouble finding here, Taco mix. There are quite a few things that I'm used to from Sydney that I can't find here... but Taco mix is just one of those things that finding a replacement for just isn't really an option.

In other news, last week I downloaded and installed the latest Ubuntu linux and I must say, very impressed. Especially for what is a free (as in beer) offering, it's really up to the point of giving the likes of Windows Xp and Vista a run for their money, especially for the slightly more tech-savvy users.

It downloads as an iso file, so you burn that to a cd and boot from it to give you the full OS running off the cd. On the desktop is a handy 'install' link, which gives Linux the advantage of being the only operating system that I'm aware of that allows you to surf the web while you're installing it.

On first boot it had installed and configured my video, network and sound, certainly a nice start before enbarking on adventures in a new operating system. I remember when i first installed linux five years ago, i was confronted by a start button that filled my entire screen and had to enlist the only local linux guru i knew to install and configure graphics drivers from the terminal. yikes. It's almost enough to put you off for five years.


On the Masters of the Universe front I was surprised as anyone to see this:

eSkeletor... the sworn enemy of eHe-Man!

from the land of the quite large snail, till next time.