Daily Rotten Archives February 16, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 Son allegedly commits matricide using father's head San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A 37-year-old San Leandro man has been arrested for involuntary manslaughter after he pushed his 69-year-old father with such force that the father's head smashed into his 66-year-old mother's face, causing fatal injuries, police said. The suspect, Herson Thant, got into a fight with his father, Soe Tin, about 7 p.m. Thursday at the family home on Fisk Court in San Leandro, San Leandro police reported... In a dispute apparently over the father's intent to leave home with packed bags, Thant pushed Tin, whose head banged into the face of the mother, Nyien Aung, police said." [Pronounced dead at the hospital.] Read article... Pakistani death toll continues to rise in kite craze News Corporation | Submitted by: Megatron "Seven people were killed and more than 100 injured in Pakistan during the annual kite flying festival marking the arrival of spring, officials said today. An 18-month-old girl's throat was cut by a stray kite string while she was travelling with her parents on a motorbike, witnesses said, adding that she died on the spot. Three people were electrocuted when metal wires they were using to fly or catch stray kites fell on live electric lines, and two people fell from roofs, hospital officials said. A 12-year-old boy died while trying to catch a stray kite when he was hit by a car on a main road, police said." Read article... Family finds pissporn in government dental hygiene DVD Independent Online | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Hong Kong family got more than they bargained for when they switched on what was supposed to be a government DVD on oral hygiene but turned out to be a porn film, reports said Monday. Instead of helpful hints on keeping healthy teeth, the family of the civil servant surnamed Wong were horrified to see close-up shots of naked young women urinating in toilets... The opening title to the film read: Unfold the secrets of girls urinating. Wong was given the disk as a promotional gift when he bought a tube of toothpaste in a shopping centre in Hong Kong's Kowloon district. It was among 60,000 the government's Department of Health had distributed to clinics and stores to be handed out free to promote better oral hygiene." Read article... Catholic church records indicate 4,450 molester priests CNN | Submitted by: TimTyler "Children accused more than 4,000 priests of sexual abuse in the years between 1950 and 2002, according to a draft survey commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops... children made more than 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The 4,450 accused priests are about 4% of the 110,000 priests who served during the 52 years covered by the study... The report said that 6,700 of the 11,000 allegations were investigated and substantiated, and another 1,000 were unsubstantiated. The remaining 3,300 were not investigated because the priests involved were dead at the time the allegation was made." Read article... Australian race riot Sunday Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Three separate inquiries are to be launched into the circumstances of the accident involving Thomas Hickey, the teenager whose death sparked violent riots in inner Sydney on Sunday night... Angry community leaders have claimed police were pursuing Hickey when he was flung from his bike and impaled on a park railing, and say they have several witnesses to the incident... The death sparked a violent riot in the suburb of Redfern, in which 40 officers were injured in clashes with youths throwing bottles, Molotov cocktails, and rocks." Read article... Lethal shower bacteria feeding off bathroom farts Nature | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Each time you take a shower you are engulfed by an aerosol of bacteria, "[Norman Pace, microbiologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder] told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. In most cases, that will not be dangerous. But if you have an unprotected cut, or your immune system is suppressed, it could be a different story. The bacteria probably feed on volatile organic chemicals shed from human bodies, says Pace, rather than on soap. 'When you cough, belch or fart, you're putting a lot of organic chemistry in there,' he says... Pace's findings have caused a change in his personal habits: 'I take showers, but since the study, I wash my shower curtain every few weeks.' ... Other studies have found that the air just above water level in a typical Jacuzzi, or hot tub, is packed with bacteria that can cause lung infections. 'I would not get into a public hot tub. I would not get into a private hot tub, frankly,' says Pace." Read article... and This article... Desmond Tutu not happy with Bush, Blair Independent UK | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Archbishop Desmond Tutu will challenge Tony Blair and George Bush today to apologise for their pursuit of a counter-productive and 'immoral' war in Iraq. In a scathing analysis of the background to the invasion, he will ridicule the 'dangerously flawed' intelligence that Britain and the US used to justify a military action which has made the world a 'great deal less safe.' ... The archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984, will suggest that the two leaders have operated a policy of 'might is right - and to hell with the rule of international law.'" Read article... Teen finds self on missing children website Canadian Broadcasting | Submitted by: Mean Gene "Police in California want to reunite a 17-year-old with his father in Alberta after the teen found on the internet that he's been missing for 14 years. The boy was surfing the web at a school in California several months ago when he found his own picture on a site about missing children... The boy's mother, 45, has been arrested by police in Los Angeles and is being held without bail... The boy's father had full custody of the boy in 1989 when he was abducted." Read article... Iraqi women's rights worse than under Saddam Washington Post | Submitted by: Lurch "For the past four decades, Iraqi women have enjoyed some of the most modern legal protections in the Muslim world, under a civil code that prohibits marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce and male favoritism in child custody and property inheritance disputes. Saddam Hussein's dictatorship did not touch those rights. But the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council has voted to wipe them out, ordering in late December that family laws shall be 'canceled' and such issues placed under the jurisdiction of strict Islamic legal doctrine known as sharia... 'The old law wasn't perfect, but this one would make Iraq a jungle,' [Kurdish lawyer Amira Hassan Abdullah] said. 'Iraqi women will accept it over their dead bodies.'" [Which is probably the idea.] Read article... Nirvana bassist decides not to run for political office Seattle Times | Submitted by: ddiiaanaa "Grunge-rock pioneer Krist Novoselic has decided against running for lieutenant governor, saying he wants to stay involved in progressive politics but 'the whole thing about running a campaign and being a public servant isn't the way to do it.' ... Novoselic was the bass player in Nirvana, which broke up with the 1994 suicide of co-founder Kurt Cobain. Novoselic had several subsequent musical projects but has since retired from performing... He had been considering running against Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a fellow Democrat. 'I found out firsthand that it's really considered bad form to run against an incumbent of your own party,' Novoselic said yesterday." Read article... Shotgun expert's ashes scattered via holy shotgun shells London Telegraph | Submitted by: 'stache "The widow of an expert on vintage shotguns had her husband's ashes loaded into cartridges and used by friends for the last shoot of the season. Joanna Booth organised the shoot for 20 close friends on an estate in Aberdeenshire after asking a cartridge company to mix the ashes of her husband James with traditional shot. A total of 275 12-bore cartridges were produced from the mix and were blessed by a minister before they were used to bag pheasants, partridges, ducks and a fox on Brucklay Estate... Julian McHardy, of the Caledonian Cartridge Company in Brechin, Angus, said it was the first request he had received to put ashes in shotgun cartridges. 'He was loaded in our Caledonian Classic, a 28 gramme load, No 6 shot with degradable plastic wadding.'" [Isn't a holy shotgun shell typically +1 THAC0?] Read article...