You don't hear this everyday.

Headline: Mum killer requests longer sentence
From: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 19.12.8
Caption: You don't hear this everyday.

A MAN who had sought the maximum jail term for murdering his mother has said his sentence of at least 17 years is "manifestly inadequate".
Adam Patrick Owens, 36, had pleaded guilty to the stabbing murder of his mother, 69-year-old environmentalist Doris Owens, in her home at Swanhaven, on the New South Wales south coast, in September 2006.
Earlier this month, he told the NSW Supreme Court his only regret was that he hadn't murdered her 20 years earlier, and that he would do it again if he had his time over..

Headline: 69 Rabbits Discovered In 1-bedroom Apartment
From: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 19.12.8
Caption: Bunny Hop

It's Christmastime, not Easter, but the DuPage County Animal Care and Control Center in Wheaton has some rabbits available for adoption - 69 of them, to be exact. All of them were found recently in a one-bedroom apartment.

Headline: Shooting Victim Goes to Work With Bullet in His Head
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 18.12.8
Caption: A Real Bullethead

A Riviera Beach man who was hit by a stray bullet in the back of the head is back at work — with the slug still stuck in his skull.

E.T. Strickland says the bullet hurts, but not enough to keep him from his job. The 74-year-old sells commercial real estate. He was told by his doctors not to have the bullet removed unless it was pressing on any arteries or causing health problems. He does plan to see a neurosurgeon though because he wants it taken out if possible.

Headline: Pilot Tells Passengers 'I'm Not Qualified to Land Plane'
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 18.12.8
Caption: Sorry folks, I'm not smarter than a fith-grader.

Pilot with more than 30 years experience was forced to turn his plane around — because he was not qualified to land in fog, an airline confirmed Thursday.

Passengers on the 8:4 5.a.m Flybe flight to Paris were just minutes away from landing at their destination when they were told they would have to go all the way back to Cardiff, England.

One passenger from Bristol missed a job interview in France because of the incident.

Cassandra Grant explained: "Twenty minutes outside Paris, the captain said, 'Unfortunately I'm not qualified to land the plane in Paris. They are asking for a level two qualification and I only have a level five. We'll have to fly back.'"

Headline: 1,500 Parakeets Rescued From 2-room ApartmentClip From: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 18.12.8
Caption: How much is that birdie in the window?

Berlin officials said they have rescued 1,500 parakeets from a two-room apartment. City veterinarian Margit Platzer said the birds were flying freely around the apartment, which was "littered with feces, feathers and leftover food." Platzer said it took her team more than seven hours on Tuesday to catch all the birds with nets.

HEADLINE: Weather rocket kills man and blows up his body at cremation
Clip from: telegraph.co.uk
Date of clip: 18.12.8
Caption: Blown up twice - dead once

The body of Wang Diange, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, was found in the wreckage of a house where he had been overseeing the wake of a previous family funeral, after mourners felt a loud explosion which took off half the roof.

As it was raining and thundery, they decided that the house, and Mr Wang in particular, had been struck by lightning. The police came to the same conclusion.

Further inquiries were made a few days later after Mr Wang's own funeral. As his body was being put into the cremation chamber, it blew up spectacularly, bursting the doors off the oven.

Headline: Fast-food Worker Laughs, Tells Robber To Get A Job
Clip from: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 17.12.8
Caption: TWO, TWO, TWO DUMBIES IN ONE

A San Antonio fast-food restaurant cashier laughed at a robbery suspect and told him to get a job if he wanted money during a failed holdup on Tuesday evening.

Police said the suspect approached the worker and demanded money, but the cashier laughed and apparently didn't realize the man was trying to hold up the place.

Headline: Heart Found On Floor Of The Paw Paw Car Wash
Clip from: CBSnews.com
Date of clip: 17.12.8
Caption: Someone's Heartless

Investigators are trying to determine if a heart found at on the floor of a southwestern Michigan car wash is from a human or an animal. The heart will be examined at a Lansing hospital's forensics services division.

WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo reported that the heart was discovered Monday by the owner of the Paw Paw car wash.

Headline: Burger King unveils body spray
Clip from: guardian.co.uk
Date of clip: 17.12.8
Caption: Meaty Smelly

Burger King releases fragrance described as 'the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat'

H2O Murder

HEADLINE: Man was killed for watering his lawn
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 14.12.8
Caption: H2O Murder

A MAN has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a homeowner he wrongly accused of ignoring water restrictions.

Todd Munter, 37, of Carringbah in Sydney's south, punched 66-year-old Ken Proctor in the face as he was watering his lawn at Sylvania last October, at a time when he was legally entitled to do so.

Mr Proctor allegedly turned the hose on Munter, after he called him a "stupid old goat" for disregarding water restrictions, prompting a physical altercation.

Munter was accused of punching him, pushing him to the ground and kicking him.

Headline: Santas freak out screaming toddlers
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 14.12.8
Caption: Claus's Ho! Ho! Ho! Freaks Kids

He's a huge, strangely dressed man who sneaks into people's homes at night, then yells, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" at the top of his lungs. Who wouldn't be afraid of Santa Claus?

"A 2-year-old knows what a regular person looks like, and Santa ain't it," author Nancy Watkins says.

Authors Denise Joyce and Nancy Watkins know at least 250 toddlers who are. The two recently published a book called "Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland" that shows photos of children on St. Nick's lap -- most of whom are desperate to leave.

The project started at the Chicago Tribune, where both Joyce and Watkins work. They asked readers to send in their photos and got an overwhelming response that's still going strong. Last week, the Tribune's "Scared of Santa" Web site had 2 million hits.

Headline: Mom Accused of Selling Twins for Cosmetic Surgery
Clip from: foxnews.com
Date of clip: 14.12.8
Caption: Crazy World

A mother in the Belgian tourist haven of Ghent has been accused by her estranged husband of selling her newborn twin boys for more than $13,000 to pay for cosmetic surgery.
Marc Poppe, 48, told an undercover reporter for Dutch television that Sonia Ringoir, 31, had sold the babies to a friend to fund liposuction, the fat removal procedure. He said the couple had searched the Internet to find a quick way to make money: "It was financially attractive to us. Of course we wouldn’t do it for nothing."

Since Belgium has no law banning the sale of children, Ringoir was charged with "degrading treatment" of the twins. She was also charged with fraud after a Dutch couple alleged she had conned them by falsely offering to be a surrogate mother.

Headline: Dieting mum dies after too much water
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 14.12.8
Caption: Sad Story

A BRITISH mother of five died after drinking too much water three weeks after she had begun a water-based diet to lose weight, an inquest has heard.
Jacqueline Henson, 40, was determined to slim down from 89kg and was "over the moon" after losing nearly 5.4kg in one week after starting the LighterLife diet plan, Huddersfield Coroners' Court in England was told yesterday.
The LighterLife diet, which has been linked with water poisoning, hair loss and disrupting the menstrual cycle, suggests consuming only 2220 kilojoules a day - a quarter of a woman's recommended daily intake - for a period of 12 weeks, and drinking four litres of water a day.

Anyone for a cab ride to hell?

Headline: Mad killer granted cabbie's licence
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 25.11.8
Caption: Sounds like a movie plot.

AN insane killer who stabbed his wife to death has won the right to drive a cab - but passengers are not allowed to know his identity.

A tribunal granted the man taxi accreditation despite pleas from Victoria's Director of Public Transport to ban him from the roads. A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal order prevents the Herald Sun revealing the name of the driver, known only as 'XFJ'.

VCAT deputy president Michael Macnamara said in his decision that XFJ's violent history raised a significant safety issue for taxi passengers.

Headline: Boy 'arrested for passing gas'
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 25.11.8
Caption: Strange condition.

A 12-YEAR-old American schoolboy has been arrested for farting in the classroom.

Police were called when the boy became disruptive, shutting off the computers of classmates and "deliberately passing gas" at his school in Florida, The Smoking Gun reports.

The 150cm offender was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Florida's Stuart's Spectrum High School.

Busted by school authorities for disruption of a school function, the boy was taken to the County Sheriff's Office...

Headline: Oregon Man Shot by Dog During Hunting Trip
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 24.11.8
Caption: Strange condition.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Henry Marcum has nothing but kind words for the dog that shot his 23-year-old son this weekend.

Marcum says his son, Matthew, was standing in Tillamook Bay at the start of duck-hunting trip when his dog jumped into the boat, setting off a 12-gauge shotgun.

The blast blew a hole in the aluminum boat before hitting Marcum, who is recovering from injuries to his legs and buttocks at Portland's Legacy Emanuel Hospital...