The BBC reports that the Old Bailey has heard that a 14-year-old boy started his family's south London home on fire in April 2004 in order to kill his parents. His parents fled, but his younger sister died of smoke inhalation. Allegedly found under the boy's bed was a list entitled 'Operation New Life', which mentioned: 'Kill family. Lose memory. Get adopted by a rich couple. It all starts.'
Arizona judge Dennis Freeman rejected Candace Dickinson's argument that her pregnancy entitled her to use the car-pool lane. Freeman said: 'The law is meant to fill empty space in a vehicle' and applied a definition in keeping with that, of an individual as someone who takes up a separate and distinct space in a vehicle. Sergeant Dave Norton, the officer who stopped Dickinson's car, said Dickinson's theory 'would require officers to carry guns, radios, and pregnancy testers, and I don't think we want to go there'.
The Daily Telegraph reported that staff from the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford decided to save money after an evening party at the pub. Adam Hodson said: 'I heard a barman ask them if they wanted a taxi and one of them said: "No, we've got one coming". They didn't say it was an ambulance. It was quite a shock when it turned up.' The off-duty medics climbed into the back of the ambulance and were away. Shropshire Ambulance Service issued an apology for the 'very silly' behaviour of its crew, and the medics who called the ambulance are facing disciplinary action.
Mark Hulette of Williston, Vermont, faced up to life in prison for repeatedly raping a pre-teen girl, since 2001. However, the Vermont Corrections Department deemed Hulette a low risk for repeat offence and decided not to offer him psychological treatment during his incarceration. Judge Edward Cashman sentenced the 34-year-old Hulette to a whopping 60 days in prison. Hulette is also supposed to obtain counselling once released. Cashman said that the 60-day sentence was the only way to provide counselling for Hulette.
Trevor Corneliusien, a 26-year-old California artist, decided to sketch a
picture of what legs look like chained together. While camping in one of
his signature artistic environments, an abandoned mine shaft, he locked a
thick chain around his bare ankles and drew a picture to capture this.
He then realised that he didn't have the key to the lock. San Bernardino
County sheriff's deputy Ryan Ford said Corneliusien put his shoes on and
hopped through the desert for 12 hours, 'through boulders and sand', until
reaching a petrol station. He summoned the authorities, who brought bolt
cutters and freed him.
Ford said the picture 'was a pretty good depiction of how a chain would
look wrapped around your legs'.
According to police, 40-year-old Elizabeth White of Salina, Kansas, was invited to spend Christmas at the Wichita home where her father and mother were raising her children. While there, White threatened to kill her father and, when he fell, came toward him with a pair of scissors. Police said White's 14-year-old son fired the pellet gun he had received as a Christmas gift, hitting her in the heart. The police reported that she threw the scissors at the teen and fled the home in a car, which she crashed as she succumbed to the injury. Capt. Randy Landen of the Wichita Police Department said the death was ruled a justifiable homicide.
A man broke into a home in Övertorneå, northern Sweden, from which he stole a mobile telephone and other goods. According to police inspector Kurt Paavola, the police rang the stolen mobile and 'the thief answered the phone but just put it away without turning it off'. Officers heard the burglar get into a cab and curse about it being late. They took note of his destination, Kalix, 60 km away. The police tracked down the taxi and arrested the man.
The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a judge's refusal to dismiss sexual abuse
charges against a 13-year-old girl who became pregnant by her boyfriend,
age 12. In the court's decision, Judge Gregory Orme explained that the
legislature 'may more vigorously protect those of more tender years',
including against each other. The rules are slightly different and more
flexible for older minors who have a small age difference.
As a result of the decision, made 'with some reluctance', the girl and
boy are deemed both victim and criminal in the same offence, sexual abuse
of a child. One of the girl's attorneys, Randall Richards, asked: 'How
can they be old enough to commit an offense if they're not old enough to
consent to it?'
First-year university student Janet Lee was arrested before her scheduled flight home to Los Angeles from Philadelphia for Christmas in 2003. Screeners discovered that her checked bags contained three condoms filled with white powder. She claimed that the powder was flour and that she squeezed the flour-filled prophylactics, which she and friends made 'as a joke', to relieve stress. Tests conducted at the airport showed the presence of drugs in the condoms, and Lee was jailed. Three weeks later, she was released, when a lab test bore out the flour part of her tale. She has now filed a lawsuit against city police. Jeremy Ibrahim, one of her lawyers, said: 'She lost significant face with this event', and she is seeking damages for emotional distress as well as pain and suffering.
Glen Thomas Betterley of Port Orange, Florida, woke up on to notice blood
on his head. He asked his 65-year-old partner, Emma Lorene Larsen,
whether she'd struck him. After she replied that she didn't know, he
cleaned his head and took a nap. When the bleeding didn't stop, the
53-year-old Betterley drove to work, left a note for his boss, and then
went to Hallifax Medical Center's emergency room. Staff there told him
he'd been shot in the forehead and had a bullet in his brain.
When police rang Larsen to obtain more information, they heard a
gunshot, then silence. Larsen's death has been deemed a probable
suicide.
In Bolivar, Missouri, 23-year-old Jason Bibeau decided to break into a Coca-Cola bottling plant. Workers arriving after the Christmas holiday found him stuck in a rooftop air vent, with his legs visible from the rooftop. Police estimated that Bibeau had been hanging head-first from the ceiling for only a couple of hours before he was found. He had a t-shirt over his head but was recognised by an officer anyway. Workers at the plant were unable to free the would-be burglar, and the fire department was summoned to do so.
Lonnie Latham, a senior Baptist pastor in Oklahoma who has vocally opposed homosexuality, was jailed after allegedly asking a man outside his hotel to visit him in his room for oral sex. The man he chose to proposition was a plain-clothes officer who was in the area to investigate motorists' complaints about male prostitutes soliciting in the area. Latham, whose 2005 Mercedes was impounded for the investigation, said he was in the area 'pastoring to police' and was 'set up'.
Dora Arlene Sauveur, 35, of Amherst, Nova Scotia, was denied entry to the US from Canada because she had overstayed her visa in 2004 and had thus been banned from entering the US for 20 years. Five days later, her fiance, 33-year-old Martin Ellis Crossno of South Carolina, was arrested on his way into the US, when border officials found Sauveur in the boot of his car. He has been sentenced to three weeks in jail and, now a convicted felon, is likely to be unable to complete his plan of moving to Canada to be with Sauveur.
Colorado's Selina Jean Valdez, 28, was arrested on suspicion of running a low-tech counterfeiting operation. Investigators said they believe she and 41-year-old Daniel Marquez flushed wads of fake money down the toilet when detectives visited their rental semi-detached house to question them. When police returned with a search warrant 10 days later, last Thursday, they found the building flooded with sewage. When the plumbing stopped working, the couple had begun emptying their bowels and bladders into carrier bags.
Wimmer's Jewelry donated diamond earrings for a North Dakota State University fund-raising event. After the distinctive jewellery was reported stolen from a storage area, Richard Roquet, 23, showed up at Wimmer's Jewelry to have the earrings appraised. Shop-owner Brad Wimmer said: 'It was all rather goofy', as the earrings were still in their original box, which included a description that mentioned their value, $4,600.
Virginia's Kenneth Creamer is accused of fatally shooting 44-year-old wife Anna in the back with an arrow from a crossbow while she was running on a home treadmill. Virginia Beach police say they came to the same home in November to investigate an accident involving a crossbow, in which Anna Creamer was grazed by an arrow. Her husband has been charged with murder.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Matilde Sucedo of
Downey, California, woke to gunshots and his daughter describing a man
outside with a torch. Saucedo found his door frame on fire and was able
to extinguish the fire with his hands. Also, a canister of flammable
liquid had been ignited next to the home of Saucedo's neighbour across the
street, but the resultant fire did little damage to that home. The house
next to it didn't fare so well. It was the home of the man with the
torch, a man in his 80s who had an ongoing feud with his neighbours over
matters such as parking.
When the police were summoned, they found the elderly man outside with
two handguns. One of his arms was aflame. Seeing the cops, he ran back
into his house. Police sergeant Ralph Romero said the fire then
apparently set off ammunition in the house.
About nine police vehicles followed a pickup truck in a 12-kilomtre low-speed chase through Shelbyville, Texas. Officer Josh Laverette said the driver was weaving all over the road and barely missed at least five oncoming cars. Susan Daniel said: 'It blew my mind because we actually watched him put on his turn signal and turn, and we could see when he went past that he had seat belts on'. Officers also noticed that he was short enough that 'whenever he would brake, he would pick himself up with his left foot and stomp on the brake with his right', said Laverette. The driver, a seven-year-old boy who 'borrowed' his parents' vehicle, said he wanted to practise before getting his driving licence. He faces a hearing later this week in juvenile court.
Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reports that when a 44-year-old driver fled from a breath-testing checkpoint in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, his car veered off the road and ended up overturned in a dried-up riverbed. When officers questioned the bruised man, he said he fled because he had been drinking. Because he was well under the legal limit for being considered intoxicated, officers are treating the incident as a simple accident and have not released the man's name.
Townsville, Queensland, baker's assistant Robin Toom, 38, was playing hide-and-seek with his children when he decided to hide in the bathroom, in his sister's top-loading washing machine. The children found him quickly, he said, but 'I was wedged in there' and the combined efforts of several family members were unable to free him. About an hour later, fire squad member Dave Dillon arrived. After threading a rescue belt under Toom's knees and lifting caused the entire washing machine to be lifted, Dillon reached into the machine to grab Toom's right ankle, lifting it and freeing him. Toom said of his children: 'I hope they don't go hiding in any washing machines now'.
Hungary's Peter Juhasz, vice president of the Hemp Seed Association, was fined on Tuesday for marijuana consumption. The case was opened when he and several members of the association reported themselves to the police in protest against a government ban on soft drugs. The national news agency, MTI, said that an investigation is now being conducted into how Juhasz managed to hold a pot of hemp in his lap during his trial. The goal of the investigation is to determine how and why he was allowed to take the hemp into the court building, as doing so is illegal.
Christopher Harris of Green Bay, Wisconsin, held up a petrol station three times over six days in summer 2004. After serving a one-year jail term for armed robbery, he was on probation when he decided to rob a convenience store on Sunday. He was apprehended by police after he robbed the Astor Park Mini Mart for the second time that day.
Shelton, Washington, Police Chief Terry Davenport said that Marie Rose's husband reported her missing. Officers first checked the couple's home. After 10 hours of searching, authorities found the 62-year-old Rose's body buried under piles of clothes, in their second search of the house. She had suffocated to death, according to the police. Davenport said the home was so cluttered as a result of Rose's hoarding that officers' heads touched the ceiling when they climbed over the piles of items.
Indianapolis police officer Don Weilhammer said a man suspected of robbing the Sakittome Lounge left through the back door with a bag containing his approximately $8000 in loot. He escaped by car. Police chased Sharife Doorah, 23, around town before he fled from his vehicle and ran off. Weilhammer said 'the bag had a hole in it, so there was money going everywhere in the neighborhood as he was running'. Weilhammer said people were leaving their homes to pick up money. News reports were unclear as to whether Doorah was arrested, but nearly all of the stolen money was recovered, thanks to the hole.
Wiltshire farmer Steve Crossman received a ticket for driving at 135 kilometres per hour in Wales. He contacted speed camera bosses to argue that he had never taken his tractor to Abergarwed, a journey that would take the vehicle about four hours, given that 'it can just about get up to 26 mph [42&nbs;km/h], but that's downhill, with a following wind and with no trailer on the back'. The Mid and South Wales Safety Camera Partnership admitted to misreading a letter on the registration plate they had filmed.
Jany Chumas of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, lost her cat during the remodelling of her home. She said she worried that the shy animal had run away but, when searching the basement, 'I called her - "Here, kitty, kitty" - and I could hear this faint, weak meow coming from behind the walls where they had just drywalled'. She rang the fire department, who sent out a team to cut a small hole in the wall. They later cut a small hole in the ceiling as well, and the cat responded to Chumas's calls, tumbling from the ceiling dusty and hungry after five days behind the drywall.
Michigan's John Ridgeway appeared in court in late December to face a traffic-related charge. While in the courtroom, he insisted on shaking hands with a prosecutor, a police officer, and the bailiff, shortly after rubbing a liquid from a vial over his hands. All three men became ill in under an hour, with headaches, numbness, tingling, and nausea that lasted about a day. The 41-year-old Ridgeway said the substance was olive oil and questioned the allegations that the three men had been affected by his handshakes. The FBI are conducting their own tests.
The BBC reports that vandals took apart the handles of 83 shopping trolleys at a Lidl supermarket in Peterlee, County Durham, and stacked the handles in a neat pile in a bin bag, which was left on the scene. A Durham Police spokesman said that officers believe the vandals didn't realise that shoppers' one-pound deposits for use of the trolleys are returned when the trolleys are returned. He said: 'We can only guess that those responsible have never used a supermarket trolley before; otherwise they would know where the money goes.'
Gareth Whyte of New Rochelle, New York, has been found guilty of biting
off part of his girlfriend's face, biting through nerves, fat, and muscle
to expose a large hole below her eye. The 27-year-old Whyte, who spat the
flesh out on the pavement, was found guilty of assault alone, after his
lawyer argued that prosecutors couldn't prove Dorothy Pritchett was
seriously injured or disfigured, as plastic surgery fixed things up.
Pritchett testified that Whyte had bitten her on a prior occasion, after
complaining that her clothes were too sexy.
Waco, Texas, attorney Paula Allen, 51, posted bond for client Rolando Castelan. When Castelan didn't show up in court, Allen was out of pocket. Police say Allen decided to address this matter by kidnapping Castelan from his wedding celebration, handcuffing him and driving him around while he placed calls to friends and family from a mobile telephone to beg for help paying back the amount. Four hours after the abduction, Castelan's ex-wife agreed to pay, and he either was freed or freed himself from the vehicle. Castelan turned himself in about a week later, with no option for a bond this time. Allen has been arrested and has hired a lawyer.
Australia's The Age reports that a 19-year-old man was injured while trying to kill a spider at a property near Mittagong. When kicking a large huntsman spider, he used such force that he broke his right leg in two places, reports NRMA CareFlight, who flew the teenager to Liverpool Hospital. The spider did not survive.
Britain's Royal Air Force spokesman Michael Mulford said the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Kinloss air base picked up a mayday beacon from one of five orbiting satellites. The signal on the major emergency frequency was traced to Portsmouth Harbour. After a helicopter rescue mission spent two hours searching for vessels in the area and no reports of missing planes were found, telecommunications watchdog Ofcom traced the signal to a household, where a faulty 'freeview' box was found to be the culprit. An Ofcom spokesman said: 'This is a real one-off as digital boxes [...] shouldn't be sending out signals, let alone maydays'. The spokesman said: 'The householder was happy to hand it over to our engineers, who are trying to get to the bottom of the defect'.
Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reports that Shinichi Kato, 33, who works part-time for a delivery company, was disgruntled after thrice in 2005 failing his test for a licence to drive large vehicles. He left about 120 nails scattered on the Chiba driving licence centre's course on 21 December, causing tests to be suspended for half an hour. A further 610 nails have been found since then. Police came to suspect Kato because his fingerprints were on a letter containing a promise to scatter nails over the training course.
![[IMG:
Indian Navy examining rocket - photo by K.R. Deepak]](images/IDontThinkYouWantedToDoThat.jpg)
Indian commissioner of Police V.S.K. Kaumudi reports that a fisherman's
net hauled in a rocket-like projectile, which was sold to a petty scrap
merchant in Visakhapatnam on Monday. The scrap shop's owner had welders
Mutyala and Syamala Rao cut open the 1.2-metre rocket. It ignited at
about the same time as the men started using their gas cutter. The rocket
went through two concrete electric poles, severed one of the limbs of a
16-year-old disabled girl, and came to rest after hitting the boundary
wall of an apartment complex. Panicked residents worried that they were
under attack. Kaumudi said the two welders, who suffered minor burns,
were taken into custody but that the owner of the scrap shop has absconded.
Indian Navy experts were called in to examine the rocket.
In a follow-up on a story that hit the headlines in 2001 and 2002, Malaysian senator Kamaruddin Ambok, 52, has been fined by an Islamic court for his 2001 divorce of his wife by text message and voice mail. He has been fined the equivalent of 120 euros because it is illegal to divorce outside the Shariah court and without its permission. Judge Zainor Rashid Hassin told the ruling party official that he underwent several Islamic rituals when being wed so: 'Now, why can't you divorce someone properly as well?'
According to AP reports, 64-year-old US postal worker Eugene Reilly normally worked a 4pm to 12:30am shift before taking a 35-minute metro ride home to Brooklyn. On Thursday at 7:11am, the start of the morning rush, attention was drawn to him as more - or less - than a sleeping passenger. The train was evacuated, and emergency medical technicians determined that he had died, with no signs of foul play involved.
Reuters reports that a thief in Bochum, western Germany, broke into a shop to steal karaoke equipment without realising that he had torn open his quilted jacket. Police spokesman Frank Plewka said a witness contacted the police and that 'they were able to act before the next story was played out - "Gone with the Wind". All they had to do was follow the feathers'. The trail stopped at the 36-year-old burglar's door.
The BBC reports that insurance underwriter Linda Riley of Newburgh reached an out-of-court settlement with employer Norwich Union after tripping on a box of accident claim forms that another worker had left on the floor in the firm's Perth office.
Japanese assistant nurse Akemi Sato has been sentenced to 44 months in prison for tearing out fingernails and toenails from six seriously ill patients at the Kyoto hospital where she worked. Over three weeks in late 2004, the 32-year-old contract employee separated 49 nails from their owners at Jujo Hospital. Prosecutors said in court: 'The defendant's stress built up because of an increased workload, having work forced on her by assistant nurses above her, and being constantly lectured to. She committed the crime as an outlet for her discontent.'
A state trooper in Oregon stopped motorist Adam Kackstetter, 26, detaining him when he became aggressive. His father, Joel, a passenger in the vehicle, didn't like this. According to the police report, he ran at the arresting officer repeatedly before being knocked down. The report continues: 'Passenger removed a prosthetic leg and threw it at trooper, hitting trooper in chest. Passenger removed second leg, threw it at trooper but missed.' The father and son face various charges.
Media outlets in the Netherlands report that Dutch police have arrested a man who gained admittance to dozens of homes by explaining that he was looking for his lost pet salamander, hamster, or iguana and proceeded to steal wallets and loose cash. Dubbed the 'salamander-man', the 33-year-old homeless man eluded the cops for months before a tip led police to his car, which contained nine empty wallets and had been stolen the previous day. Upon his arrest, he man admitted to about 60 thefts.
Reports from Colombia describe Rafael Vargas's attempt to cure 21-year-old nephew David Galvan's mid-drinking hiccoughs. Vargas, a professional security guard, told the neighbours with whom the pair were drinking that he would use a home remedy to cure Galvan: startling him. He then pointed his gun at Galvan. Police in Barranquilla said witnesses reported that the gun accidentally went off, killing Galvan, and that the distraught Vargas then turned the weapon on himself, commiting suicide.
Reuters reports that South Korea's South Kyongsang province plans to give the equivalent of 3500 pounds to each male farmer from the region who weds a mail-order bride. Agricultural policy official Ryu Kum-ju explained that local women tend to be less pleased with the idea of rural life and that 'young men in the countryside [...] started to look elsewhere' in Asia for brides, typically China and Vietnam. The subsidy is intended to help men afford to bring these women to the peninsula and to provide financial support for a trial period.
Dawn Higgins, 47, parked outside a Wal-Mart in Lower Nazareth Township, eastern Pennsylvania, on 18 October to finish a McDonald's meal. Not wanting to eat the lettuce leaves atop her salad, she threw them from her car. Fined $173.50 for littering, she was convicted in absentia. She later said: 'Lettuce comes from the ground, therefore it can go back into the ground. It's biodegradable. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.' Higgins has filed an appeal.
Francois Gerthosser of France's Plourin-les-Morlaix police reports on the results of two years of attempts to identify a woman whose corpse was found during extremely low tide near Plouezoc'h in Brittany. Poring over missing persons records revealed no matches, and DNA tests turned up nothing. In the end, officers turned to radiocarbon dating, which indicated that the woman likely died between 1401 and 1453 from a blow to the skull with a hatchet or similar item. Gerthosser said that police believe the cause of death was pirates.
The Valley Voice newspaper of Goleta, California, reports that a 21-year-old man hired a taxi to carry him home to Goleta from a Santa Barbara bar but, on arrival, was unable to pay for the journey. Intoxicated, he punched the driver several times, then went into his home. The taxi driver contacted the authorities, who were able to identify the culprit with the help of his wallet and a set of keys he had left in the back seat of the cab.
Police in Long Island, New York, say that six-year-old Kaitlyn Hassard started playing with the family dog after returning from school. The animal began pulling on Kaitlyn's scarf, so her mother put the dog in the back garden. A few minutes later, the 18-kilo girl asked to play with the 32-kilo animal. Her mother agreed. About 10 minutes later, the girl's 11-year-old brother went into the garden to fetch her and found her on the ground. She was later pronounced dead. Suffolk County Homicide Detective Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick said the pet had apparently dragged her around on the ground by the scarf.
Jason Moises Gomez of Lompoc, California, is believed to have been high on methamphetamine when he rolled over in his sleep onto his one-month-old twin daughters, according to local police. The 31-year-old man's body suffocated both babies, who slept in their parents' bed on a regular basis.
Police in Leavenworth, Kansas, heard that Sylvester J. Williams, 21, had been selling crack cocaine. Police Major Patrick Kitchens said officers then found one of the business cards Williams was handing out to advertise this occupation. The cards featured what appeared to be an alarm clock being hit by a boxing glove and the text: 'For a quick hit on time call the boss'. Police paid him a visit, setting up a sting operation. Williams has been charged with possessing crack cocaine with the intent to sell it.
Springfield, Oregon, police detective Tom Rappe said a man robbed a restaurant last Monday, then returned for more loot two days later. In his Wednesday visit, the robber told the clerk he wanted her to give him more money this time. Police said that as the man fled on foot through a car park, he fired several rounds from a handgun. It is unclear why he fired the gun, but it does seem clear that one of the bullets went through his foot. Clayton Everett Teman, 23, was arrested for the crime and hospitalised.
Michael Coviello, 17, wore a skirt to his New Jersey high school in protest at an October-to-mid-April ban on shorts that he considered discriminatory because of its existence alongside a rule allowing skirts. When he showed up in what the district superintendent deemed a costume-style dress, he was told to purchase 'everyday' dresses and skirts. However, a few days later, he was sent home with a note from the principal that said wearing a dress, kilt, or skirt would result in his no longer being allowed to attend the school. The American Civil Liberties Union announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with school officials. Coviello said: 'I'm happy to be able to wear skirts again to bring attention to the fact that the ban on shorts doesn't make sense'.
Police in Florida report that Dave Swafford became angry when his 15-year-old daughter reported being inappropriately touched by a teacher's aide. He punched the 35-year-old teacher's assistant in the face in front of a classroom full of students at Lakewood Ranch High School, near Bradenton. In the aftermath of the incident, the girl confessed to Manatee County school officials that she concocted the accusations, enlisting friends to help her, in retaliation for being placed in detention by the aide, who saw her pour cola on another student through an open window. The teacher's aide is on paid leave, Swafford has been charged with felony battery, and the girls face possible expulsion.
Speaking for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police, Anne Schwartz said three scarred and bruised boys, two of them aged nine and one age six, were found in an abandoned house with no functioning utilities. The boys used the building to escape their 35-year-old mother's beatings. Officers said that complaints about the woman's care of her children date back to 1997. Her six oldest children had previously been removed from her home by child welfare officials. The three boys and her other five children have now been removed from their pregnant mother's custody as well.
In 1998 or 1999, Yuji Yamauchi began living in Osaka's Ogimachi Park. He set up a tent there in 2000, at which time he registered an acquaintance's home as his residence. Japanese police told him the registration was illegal, so in 2004 he submitted a change-of-address form that listed the public park as his home. Officials refused his application, stating that his tent would restrict proper use of the park. The 55-year-old Yamauchi responded by filing suit. On Friday, Osaka District Court judge Tomoichiro Nishikawa said that Yamauchi may indeed register the park, where he eats and to which he returns after work, as his home, adding that an address of residence indicates where a person lives and that, thus, its validity should be judged by whether it is really the applicant's home. Meanwhile, the Osaka government plans to remove Yamauchi's tent.
Zimbabwe's Tafadzwanashe and Tapiwanashe Fichani entered an upscale Harare shopping centre last month while wearing only pre-colonial-style loincloths. Several shoppers rang the police. The twins, who say they were making a statement through their choice of dress, have been arrested for indecent exposure and denied bail. They await trial and psychological tests. The head of Zimbabwe's National Traditional Healers' Association, Gordon Chavunduka, said: 'We have failed to see how their actions conform to our culture. Dressing of that nature is now reserved for special traditional and cultural occasions, not everywhere.'