Legal Humour News - November 23, 2009

^{_{Note - No implied endorsement of, or affiliation with, any linked sites. We assume no responsibility for the content of such Web sites and your use of such Web sites is at your own risk.}}

1 - See You In Court!

Woman divorces husband over soap opera ban
An Indian woman successfully divorced her husband after he refused to allow her to watch television soap operas. The situation led to daily arguments between the couple from Pune, southeast of Mumbai, and she filed for divorce. Granting her application, a family court judge said the husband had been picking arguments with his wife for more than four years "on the ground that she was seeing Hindi serials on TV channels".
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091117/oddities/india_marriage_divorce_offbeat_1

US town nixes Christmas parade to avoid legal squabble
Officials in an Ohio town canceled their Christmas parade this year to avoid huge legal fees in defending the tradition from possible lawsuits by religious groups. The legal hurdle surfaced when the private group that for 28 years had funded the parade in Amelia village recently announced it could no longer do so, prompting the village mayor to step in with public funds.On a lawyer's advice, the mayor decided to change the name of the event from Christmas Parade to the more neutral "Holiday Parade" to avoid lawsuits and abide by constitutional rules about the separation of church and state.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091112/oddities/us_religion_holiday_offbeat_1

2 - Crime and Punishment

Man with lizards stuck to chest caught at airport
Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that 40-year-old Michael Plank of California was returning from Australia when U.S. Customs agents found two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks - another type of lizard - fastened to his body.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/20/11843561-ap.html

Cannibals nabbed selling corpse to kebab house
Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house. Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/16/11766476-reuters.html

Man arrested for calling 911, asking for sex
Florida police say a man arrested for repeatedly calling 911 looking for sex claimed it was the only number he could dial after running out of cell phone minutes. Tampa police said 29-year-old Joshua Basso made sexual comments to the 911 dispatcher and asked if he could come to her house. Investigators say she hung up, but he called back four more times.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/13/11735861-ap.html

Suspect steals car to attend court
The California Highway Patrol say a man stole a car to make a court appearance on a previous auto theft charge. Authorities were looking for the stolen car after its tracking system alerted them about the theft.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/06/11664976-ap.html

Man provides photo for his own wanted poster
A British man on the run from police sent a picture of himself to his local paper because he disliked the mugshot they had printed of him as part of a public appeal to track him down. South Wales Police had issued media with the photo of Matthew Maynard, wanted by officers investigating a house burglary, as part of a crackdown on crime in Swansea. When it appeared in the South Wales Evening Post, the 23-year-old sent the newspaper a replacement photo of himself standing in front of a police van. They obligingly printed it on the front page.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5A831720091109

3 - Politics, Law, and Governance

Student expelled over too-short dress
A Brazilian woman whose short, pink dress caused a near riot at a private college and led to her expulsion will be allowed to return to class. Just hours after the Brazilian government sought an explanation from the university, its dean released a note saying he was reversing the school’s decision to expel her.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/09/11689726-ap.html

Overweight students at university in US told to take fitness class or risk diploma
A university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts. Officials at historically black Lincoln University said that the school is simply concerned about high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091120/koddities/us_college_graduation_fitness

Lawmaker who expensed fine wine, car, jailed
A former far-right British member of the European Parliament who cheated on his expense money to buy fine wine and a car was jailed for two years. Tom Wise, who represented the UKIP before becoming an independent, spent a year channelling some 40,000 pounds ($66,080) in taxpayers' cash into a bank account he secretly controlled.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5AB3YD20091112

China legislator seeks to criminalise banquets
A Chinese legislator fed up with lavish banquets and official wining and dining has proposed making the "squandering of public funds" a crime.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091122/oddities/china_politics_corruption_offbeat

4 - And Now for Something Completely Different

Couple sign no-homework deal with school
A Calgary couple who say teachers are assigning kids too much “busy work” have signed a no-homework contract with their children’s school. Tom and Shelli Milley say it’s too much to ask students to attend classes all day and then do a lot of homework at night.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/20/11839236-sun.html

Woman passes driver's test after 950th try
A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver’s license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/11/06/11658081-ap.html