Long Island man faces jail for laughing too loudly in own home

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man from Long Island, New York, is facing up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine after a neighbor complained to police he was laughing too loudly, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
Police issued Robert Schiavelli, 41, two tickets for disturbing the peace for laughing out the window of his home in Rockville Centre on Long Island at about 6 p.m. on February 12 and February 13, his lawyer said.
Schiavelli said the neighbor regularly mocks his disability, and the best response to those taunts is laughter.
"He just ridicules me all the time and the only thing I can come up with is laughing," Schiavelli said in a telephone interview.
His lawyer, Andrew Campanelli, said his client has frequent seizures as a result of neurological impairments but denied his laugh is loud or boisterous.
"He's like a big teddy bear, he's got a low laugh," Campanelli said.
Schiavelli lives with his mother, Suzanne Schiavelli, who said in an interview on Wednesday that he had a "fairly loud" laugh.
"I think it's infectious. It's cute," she said. "When my husband died, we said to ourselves, ‘We're going to make sure to laugh every day and make the most of life.'"
Daniel O'Hanion, the neighbor who made the complaint, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
O'Hanion and Schiavelli live in adjacent private homes about 20 feet apart, separated by two driveways.
The Rockville Centre Police Department said they issued the summonses after receiving complaints about an ongoing pattern of noisemaking.
"On two occasions, police actually observed this individual creating a disturbance directed at neighbors and in violation of local law," police said in a statement.
Schiavelli's mother said O'Hanion often calls her son a "retard," parodies his speech and mocks his walk. Relations worsened when they had builders in to renovate their house over O'Hanion's objections, she said.
Campanelli said that a judge declined a motion to dismiss the case at a village court hearing on Tuesday.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Phil Berlowitz)

Pro wrestling manager known as "Paul Bearer" dies in Alabama

By Kaija Wilkinson

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - The professional wrestling community on Wednesday mourned the death of William Moody, a real-life undertaker who gained fame as a wrestling manager with the ring name Paul Bearer.
Moody, 58, who managed the entertainment sport's champion The Undertaker and helped launch the careers of wrestlers Kane and Mankind, died Tuesday night at a hospital in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, according to a hospital employee. The hospital did not release a cause of death.
"WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of William Moody, aka Paul Bearer," the wrestling organization said on its website.
"Moody made his WWE debut in 1991 as the manager of The Undertaker and went on to become a memorable part of WWE over the course of the next 20 years," the site said.
For his spooky character, Moody wore pasty makeup, carried an urn and spoke in a high-pitched wail. He made his last television appearance for WWE in April 2012, the organization said.
Angie Daniel-Poteet, co-owner of Coastal Funeral Home and Cremations in Moss Point, Mississippi, where Moody worked for about five years until 2010, described him as an upbeat person who always made time for fans and friends.
"He could still put us in our place with 'that look,'" Daniel-Poteet said on Wednesday, referring to Moody's signature facial expression, a wide-eyed scowl. "But it wasn't serious, and he never trash-talked fellow wrestlers like others in the wrestling community."
Moody earned the respect of both the national professional wrestling and local funeral home communities, said Phillip Gilmer, a close friend and owner of Gilmer's Funeral Home in Mobile.
Moody had been having problems in recent months with breathing and sleep apnea, Gilmer said.
"Bill Moody was a gentle giant, a great person with a heart as big as Texas," he said.
(Reporting by Kaija Wilkinson; Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Dan Grebler)

Australian election debate moved to avoid clash with cookery show

Julia Gillard, of the Australian Labor Party.
Image: Adam Carr.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - A televised debate between Australia's candidates for Prime Minister in the upcoming election has been rescheduled and shortened — to avoid a clash with popular cookery show MasterChef.

The pre-election debate traditionally lasts 90 minutes and occurs at 1930 on the first Sunday of the campaign.

With the grand finale of the cooking competition already scheduled for that time, and expected to attract around four million viewers, the decision has been made to move the debate forward to 1830 and shorten it to 60 minutes.

When asked about MasterChef, Prime Minister Julia Gillard replied: "I can understand the fascination with cooking and eating, so I know many Australians will watch that show. But I think Australians still pay some regard to the debate and the election campaign."
The debate between Gillard and her Liberal/National Coalition primary opponent Tony Abbott has already been the subject of controversy. Former PM Kevin Rudd had committed to holding three debates before the election. Gillard insisted she only wanted one.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown had also wished to be part of the debate, but joked that he probably had more chance of appearing on MasterChef.

Two ill after eating burgers laced with multi-purpose cleaner in Bathurst, Australia

Sign at the front of Hungry Jack's Bathurst

Thursday, March 25, 2010 - A prank by three young kitchen staff at Hungry Jack's fast food restaurant in the Central-Western New South Wales city of Bathurst went wrong when two customers required medical treatment after eating burgers they had laced with multi-purpose cleaner.

According to staff at the Emergency Department of Bathurst Hospital, two Hungry Jack's customers became ill Sunday night after eating burgers contaminated with a chemical believed to be multi-purpose cleaner. One of the patrons was in a serious condition upon arrival at Bathurst Hospital due to being allergic to an ingredient in the cleaning product. "He presented to the emergency department as he was having an allergic reaction after eating a burger from Hungry Jacks, he was in a really bad way when he arrived here and if he had waited much longer it could have been much worse," said a Greater Western Area Health Service employee. "We called Hungry Jacks and they said that three of their employees had been goofing off and sprayed multi-purpose cleaner inside the burgers so we then treated the patients for poisoning."

Both customers are expected to make a full recovery. During an investigation undertaken by Wikinews reporter Nathan Carter, it was learned that the chemical sprayed into the burgers was KAY multipurpose cleaner which is reported to cause nausea, diarrhoea and mucosal and gastric irritation. The Material Safety Data Sheet for KAY multipurpose cleaner lists Antonic Surfactants as its hazardous ingredient.

In New South Wales, it is a criminal offence to make food intended for sale unsafe punishable by 2 years imprisonment. Due to restrictions on the publication of the name of young people involved in crimes in New South Wales, the names of kitchen staff can not be published. Wikinews was told by Hungry Jack's staff that the staff involved in the incident remained employed by Hungry Jack's. Josh, a Hungry Jack's manager at the Bathurst restaurant, told Wikinews that his boss Adam was aware of the food contamination issue and would be taking steps to address it.

Japanese tourist travels through 37 countries on just $2

Keiichi Iwasaki in Pakistan

 Saturday, September 12, 2009 - Keiichi Iwasaki, a 36-year-old Japanese tourist has spent eight years cycling more than 45,000km across 37 countries with the equivalent of just $2 in his pocket, relying on his bicycle for transport.

Iwasaki left his home for a short tour through Japan in 2001. He liked the trip so much that he extended his trip and hitched a ride on a ferry to South Korea and began to travel the world.
"Most travellers and adventurers need money but instead of giving up an opportunity to travel the world I want to clarify that dreams can come true if you have a strong will," Iwasaki said.

During his trip, Iwasaki ran into trouble on many occasions. He was robbed by pirates, attacked in Tibet by a rabid dog, escaped marriage in Nepal and was arrested in India.

Countries Iwasaki has visited include: South Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Switzerland.

Giant tuna sold for $177,000 at Japanese fish market

Pacific bluefin tuna in their native habitat.

Tuna sushi ready to serve.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - This Tuesday, at a wholesale auction at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, a 512-pound bluefin tuna was sold for over sixteen-million yen ($177,000 USD). The great fish was bought and then shared by the owners of a local sushi restaurant and a Hong Kong-based dining establishment. This tuna is the most expensive fish sold on record since 2001, when a 440-pound tuna was sold for over twenty-million ($220,000) at the very same market.

When asked by local media outlets why he decided to purchase this giant tuna, the Hong Kong restaurateur said, "I want[ed] to make an impact on the Japanese and Hong Kong economies by buying the highest-priced tuna."

This locally caught tuna was among over two-thousand others bought and sold at this bustling fish market. Japan is the world's largest consumer of seafood per annum. With tuna being a major staple of their cuisine, the Japanese eat nearly eighty-percent of all commercially caught bluefin.

However, tuna consumption in Japan has declined over recent years due to the change in the spending habits of its people as a result of economic downturns from the most recent recession.
"Consumers are shying away from eating tuna...We are very worried about the trend," a spokesperson for the Tsukiji market told the Associated Press.

In addition to the lack of demand and declining tuna stocks, fishermen and wholesalers worldwide are worried by the possibility of tighter fishing regulations that will be sanctioned and enforced by the Japanese government. Despite this promise, many environmentalists say that this is not going far enough; they say that the only way to curb the inevitable extinction of the Pacific bluefin tuna is to initiate a trade ban on the fish altogether.

Qatari diplomat detained on Las Vegas bound flight

A United Airlines Boeing 757
Image: Pedroalcaina.

Friday, April 9, 2010 - A man tried to ignite his shoes during a flight from Washington, DC to Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday. Air Marshals subdued the Qatari diplomat on board the airplane before it landed safely at Denver International Airport in Colorado. The airplane was United Airlines Flight 663, a Boeing 757 with 157 passengers and 6 crew members on board.

A search concluded that there were no explosives on the plane. NBC News reports that there was smoke coming from a restroom which led to an air marshal subduing the suspect.

The diplomat was reportedly smoking a cigarette in the plane's lavatory. He also reportedly stated, jokingly, that he wanted to light his shoe on fire. It is unlikely that he will face charges due to his diplomatic immunity.

After the incident was reported by the pilot, military jets scrambled and escorted the airplane safely to Denver. The TSA and law enforcement agencies took the suspect into custody and are currently investigating the incident.

This incident occurs just as many countries are trying to lift their airplane restrictions caused by a Nigerian man who tried to detonate explosives in his underwear