The following is a summary of odd news items
BERLIN - German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday. The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said.
28 detained in beach "gigolo" raid
JAKARTA - Police on Indonesia's resort island of Bali detained 28 people this week in a crackdown on "beach gigolos," who scout for foreign female tourists, officials said on Tuesday. The raids began on Monday after the release of a trailer for a documentary on Bali's 'Kuta cowboys', the muscular and tanned Kuta beach surfers who develop short-term romantic relationships with foreign women in return for gifts.
E-mail faux pas
NEW YORK - Goldman Sach's bond trader Fabrice Tourre has plenty to worry about, being accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But his amorous emails made public in the case may have him losing even more sleep at night. Email blunders have been around as long as there has been email and examples are endless. Yet we never seem to learn, experts say.
Driver's thumbs insured for $13 million
LONDON - Double world champion Fernando Alonso gave a €10 million thumbs-up to future Formula One success with Ferrari yesterday. Team sponsors Santander said they had insured the Spaniard's thumbs for five million each as part of a publicity campaign for accident and life insurance ahead of next week's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Spitzer film recalls glory days, bares enemies
NEW YORK - Eliot Spitzer left a lot of enemies in his wake as the "The Sheriff of Wall Street" and some still have not forgiven the former state attorney general, who resigned in 2008 as governor of New York in a prostitution scandal. These opponents, prostitutes and Spitzer himself, talk for the cameras in a new film, shown for the first time as work-in-progress at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night.