Man told to divorce his 82 of his 86 wives

Abuja - Nigeria's Islamic authority has told an 84-year-old man with 86 wives and 170 children that he must whittle his number of spouses down to four or face the death penalty, reports said on Thursday

The BBC said that Mohammed Bello Abubakar, a former teacher and preacher, could face the death penalty under Sharia law, which was reintroduced to the Muslim-majority Niger State, North-West Nigeria, in 2000.

Nigerian media and the BBC interviewed Abubakar two weeks ago, when he claimed there was no punishment in the Qu'ran for having more than four wives. Abubakar also told the BBC that Allah had given him to power to control his 86 wives.

Death in Sleep

People in Pune kept themselves awake throughout the night as there rumors doing the round of stories of people dying in the sleep due to a planteray effect. The rumors started coming on Thursday, as people got calls about the sudden deaths, warning them not to sleep.

This resulted in panic and anxiety among people, mostly staying in chawls or hutments. The Pimpri police confirmed that a rumor had spread among the citizens. "We have received three to four calls in the morning from some students, a college and bank employee asking if the situation was normal and people could travel" the duty officer said.

Dog on Death Row

An eight year old mongrel has been awarded "death sentence" by the court of SDO five years ago for barking and biting passerbys. The dog has been making the rounds of the court for his acquittal. The dog named Chotu was looked after by Rajkumar Devi and Kusum. Probably the only condemned canine, it got a reprieve after animal activists, including Maneka Gandhi, rushed to his rescue. The DM has directed the SDO to revoke the order to "shoot the dog".

As for now it has been handed out a fresh date for hearing and we thought it happened only to humans!!

Barack Obama too thin to win White House?

LONDON: Barack Obama, who hopes to become the first Black-American President, may be ahead of Republican candidate John McCann in some opinion polls, but when it comes to figure, he is far behind.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal has indicated that Obama is too thin to win the White House as his slim physique could be a liability in a nation of mostly obese voters and it might also affect his presidential campaign.

To be specific, the report suggested that Obama might be too thin and too fit to appeal to voters who tend to like candidates with flaws that they can identify with, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported.

Obama's enthusiasm for exercise first raised eyebrows last month, when he stopped three times in one day for workouts at Chicago gyms, prompting a reporter to wonder: "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for President or Mr Universe."

It has also been widely noted that Obama sometimes seems appalled when presented at election meetings with the pride of local cuisine, often a fat-smothered hunk of meat or a sugary bun dripping in aerosol cream.

Aussie PM related to an underwear thief: Study

CANBERRA: Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd is a descendent of a child underwear thief and a convict sent to Australia from England for stealing a bag of sugar, a new family history of the PM has found.

Australia's Mormon church spent more than a year researching Rudd's family history, and presented the findings to the prime minister on Thursday.

The Mormon church has a reputation for the excellence of its genealogical research. It found Rudd, like many Australians, had convict ancestors — including his fifth great-grandmother who was sent to Australia at the age of 12 after originally being sentenced to death for stealing another girl's dress and underwear.

The family history reveals Rudd's fifth great-grandmother Mary Wade lived in poverty in England and survived by sweeping streets and begging. In 1788, aged about 12, she and another girl robbed an eight-year-old girl of her dress and underclothes. Wade was caught and tried in January 1789 and was sentenced to be executed, but after three months she was transported to Australia.

Guests mistake police for strippers

BERLIN: Police say two officers who responded to complaints about a raucous weekend party in western Germany were mistaken for male strippers by the female guests. Simmern police spokesman Bernd Hoffmann says neighbors called police around 12.45 am on Sunday to complain about noise from a birthday party in their building.

A round of applause from the apartment resident - who had just turned 30 - and her friends greeted two officers who went to investigate. Hoffmann said on Monday that ``they thought the policemen were dressed like that because they were strippers. It took them a while to realize they were real police officers.'' Hoffmann says the women had not ordered strippers but thought someone had sent them as a birthday surprise.

The incident resulted in no arrests.