An honour guard unit carried the remains of US Army Staff Sgt James T. Hackemer during his burial service at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday in Arlington, Virginia. Sgt Hackemer, who lost his right leg below his knee and his left leg at the hip in a roadside bomb explosion while deployed in Iraq in 2008, died when he was thrown from a roller coaster in upstate New York last month. (AFP)

Forced labour?!

When a German boy phoned to complain he was being made to do “forced labour”, police were alarmed. But it turned out the 11-year-old had only been asked by his mother to help clean up at home.

The boy from the western city of Aachen phoned to make his complaint, adding that his mother “made him work all day”, police said.

“I have to work all day long. I haven’t any free time,” the boy told authorities over the phone.

His mother, who was not identified, later told police her son had been complaining over the holidays of having to help around the house, and had repeatedly threatened to call the police over such “forced labour”.

When she asked him to pick up paper on the floor, he dialled the 110 police emergency number.

“He plays all day long and when told to tidy up what he’s done, he calls it forced labour,” police quoted his mother as saying. (AFP)

Tough tunes

A convenience store in Ohio has discovered it can keep loiterers and beggars away by playing classical music.

The new music went on as part of upgrades at the United Dairy Farmers store.

Shopper Allie Beck says she can hear it all the way down the street - but it’s an improvement over all the people who used to ask for change or bother passers-by outside the store. (PA)

Niagara fall

A woman died after being swept over Niagara Falls when she fell from a railing along the top of them.

Niagara Parks Police in Ontario said two women students in their 20s from the Toronto area were visiting the falls when one of them climbed onto a pillar, with her legs straddling the railing.

She stood up and apparently lost her footing, falling into the river about 80 feet upstream from the brink of the falls on the Canadian side. The river’s swift current swept her over the falls. (PA)

Rotting body parts

Three containers filled with decomposed body parts, including a severed head, have been found in the Japanese city of Osaka, in suspected murder cases involving at least two victims, police said yesterday.

The gruesome find included a head, three feet, a pair of hands and bone fragments, according to a prefectural police spokesman from Osaka, western Japan.

“The bodies of at least two persons are involved in the case,” he said. “It is difficult to ascertain the ages or sex of the bodies.”

Police opened two of the containers, which had been spotted in a park and a nearby roadside in a town near Osaka Castle, on Sunday after reports of a pungent stench coming from the boxes. (AFP)

Injured police dog

A British police officer yesterday said seeing his working dog suffer a fractured skull after being struck by a brick during the riots in Tottenham was like seeing his “best friend and closest colleague” injured.

Constable Phil Wells said it was “very emotional” when three-year-old German Shepherd Obi was struck by a missile on Tottenham High Road last Saturday. He said: “Obi is trained in public order, and that may be dispersing a crowd or pushing them back. We were on a stationary point when we came under heavy bombardment. There were lots of missiles coming at us, bottles, bricks, petrol bombs, street furniture, too many to count and one hit Obi on the top of the head.

“Initially he was a bit shocked but I gave him a checkover and tried to avoid any further injuries and after the initial shock he seemed fine so we carried on for another couple of hours.”

“Afterwards he was assessed and and was showing signs he needed veterinary help. He was lethargic and was bleeding from the left nostril which could be a sign of head trauma so he was taken to the vets and assessed and the vet was not happy about the impact he had had so he was transferred... for a CT scan.

“That showed he had a fractured skull above the left eye socket.” (PA)