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TONY'S LIST OF WEIRD STORIES IN THE NEWS

1 > THE LLANFYNYDD PRIMARY SCHOOL

Like all schools, it has a head teacher, governors, and a caretaker. But unlike any other school, Llanfynydd Primary has not a single pupil. The “phantom” village school near Carmarthen in South Wales remains open despite this, and will remain so for another seven months. Red tape means it cannot be closed for lessons even though all 11 pupils have left for other school.

No children have been taught there since last July, when it cost taxpayers £50,000 to run.

AND YOU THOUGHT ONTARIO WAS BAD!

2 > A GAY COUPLE WANTING A DIVORCE TAKES ARGUMENT BEFORE MO. SUPREME COURT

We have heard a lot about court cases involving gay couples wanting to get married. Missouri’s highest court will hear one from a gay couple trying to get a divorce. The men were married in Iowa two years ago and tried to divorce in St. Louis County, but were told the court didn’t have jurisdiction because of Missouri’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Missouri ACLU Executive Director Jeffrey Mittman argues that, especially in light of recent court rulings, that is no longer the case.

“The state court in the case of barrier has ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state of Missouri to refuse to recognize marriages,” Mittman says. “Therefore, under Missouri law, any couple who is married elsewhere has the right to go a court here and get a divorce.”

AND YOU WONDER WHY COURT DOCKETS ARE OVERFLOWING?

3 > MISSOURI WHITE STUDENTS TOLD NOT TO TAKE PART IN FERGUSON ‘DIE-IN’ DEMONSTRATION

Columbia, MO. — Organizers of a recent Ferguson protest at the University of Missouri requested “only people of color” take part in the event’s “die-in,” one element of a larger demonstration that prompted at least two classes to be shelved so students could participate.

“During the demonstration we will hold a ‘die-in’ in the student center. We are asking that only people of color be the ones to do so,” event organizers stated in an email obtained by The College Fix. “We are asking non-people of color to stand holding hands in solidarity.”

“The ‘die-in’ is meant to represent black bodies that are killed unjustly. It was requested that others stand in a circle holding hands,” student Ebony Francis told The College Fix in a telephone interview. Tuesday afternoon’s rally attracted hundreds of students and faculty and lasted more than 90 minutes as participants vented frustration over the decision by a grand jury to not indict Police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Organizers asked the campus community to leave “classrooms and offices with their hands up and meet us in the Student Centre at 12:00pm to move in solidarity and inform this campus and our community that we will not tolerate injustice against black and brown lives,” according to organizers’ email.

A DIE IN? ANY MORE DUMB IDEAS?

4 > SCIENTISTS?

A neuroscientist is trying to upload his entire brain to a computer.

This invoves a rectal connecter wired to a USB port on a computer. Very painful!

5 > CHILD BRIDES

NIGERIAN CHILD BRIDE

KAURA, Nigeria — Like many girls her age here, Wasila Tasiu married young, at a simple ceremony in front of the mud-brick house she shared with her mother, her father and her father’s second wife. Wedding guests said it was a joyous occasion: There was a love-struck bride, a happy father and a proud groom named Umaru Sani, who had come from a nearby village to Tasiu’s home in Kaura, a village in Nigeria’s northern Kano state.

Tasiu was 14, according to her father, although her age is a matter of dispute. She was to be the 40-year-old Sani’s second wife. The marriage lasted 17 days. At the end of it, Sani was dead, and so were three of his friends, who had joined him for a lunch spiked with rat poison.

In the hours after her husband was buried, Tasiu confessed to poisoning his meal. The crime seems senseless to the people in her village. The couple was in love; how could it go so wrong, so fast? But Tasiu’s lawyer tells a different story: Given away as a bride before she was even a woman, Tasiu saw her actions as the only way of escape from a loveless marriage.

“Obviously, the marriage caused it,” said her attorney, Hussaina Aliyu. “Because she was scared of the marriage. She didn’t know what the marriage was all about.” Under state law, Tasiu was old enough to marry; there’s no minimum age for marriage in Kano state. But she’s too young to die. Tasiu is charged with four counts of murder, which carry the death penalty, but the law says she can’t be executed or sentenced to a long prison term if convicted because she’s a juvenile, even though her age remains unclear.

POISON? ISN'T NIGERIA THE COUNTRY FROM WHICH MANY MAIL SCAMS ORIGINATE?

6 > UNARMED BLACK MAN FATALLY SHOT BY WHITE POLICEMAN IN PHOENIX AZ

Shortly before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, officers were in the area of Interstate 17 and Greenway Road for a burglary investigation when a resident of an apartment complex told them that men inside a black Cadillac SUV were engaged in a drug deal, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Police checked the license plate that the tipster provided and found it was registered to a resident in the 15,400 block of North 25th Avenue, where there was also a pending report of a "loud music disturbance." The loud-music call was canceled, so the officer went to the SUV to ask questions of those inside, Crump said.

The officer said the driver, later identified as Brisbon, got out and appeared to be removing something from the rear of the SUV. The officer told Brisbon to show his hands, but Brisbon stuffed his hands into his waistband, Crump said. The officer drew his weapon and Brisbon ran toward nearby apartments, Crump said. A short foot chase ensued.

"Witnesses indicated to us that the suspect was verbally challenging to the officer," Crump said. Brisbon refused to comply with the officer's commands to get on the ground, and the two struggled once the officer caught up with him, Crump said.

"During the struggle, Brisbon put his left hand in his pocket and the officer grabbed onto the suspect's hand, while repeatedly telling the suspect to keep his hand in his pocket," he said. "The officer believed he felt the handle of a gun while holding the suspect's hand in his pocket."

A woman inside an apartment opened a door at that moment, and the officer and Brisbon tumbled inside, Crump said. Two children, ages 9 and 2, were in a back bedroom, he said. The officer could no longer keep a grip on Brisbon's hand and, because he feared that the suspect had a gun in his pocket, fired two shots, Crump said.

The item in Brisbon's pocket turned out to be a bottle of oxycodone pills, he said. Crump said the officers are aware of the delicate nature of the case and are asking the community to allow investigators to gather all the facts. The family of Brisbon does not believe that his shooting was racially motivated but several people were involved in a public protest.

"I would like to think that in our officer-involved shootings, that we are transparent as we can be as an organization," Crump said. "We always have been and always will be concerned about what it is that our residents think about our role in this community and the levels of force that we use. "Let's be very clear: The officer was doing what we expect him to do, which is investigate crimes that neighbours are telling him are occurring in that part of the complex." Crump said the department was not identifying the officer, a 30-year-old with seven years on the force.

SURELY THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO POLICE USING DEADLY FORCE!

7 > THE ANACONDA STORY..... ONACCONTA THE GUY HAS A DEATH WISH?

Yes, it's confusing. Paul Rosolie was eaten alive by an anaconda and now he's giving interviews. His stunt, which he says he survived by wearing a carbon-fiber snake-proof suit, was filmed and will air on the Discovery Channel in a show called Eaten Alive. "She nailed me right in the face," Rosolie tells EW, "and the last thing I saw was her mouth wide open before everything went black. And then she wrapped me and I felt the suit cracking and my arms ripping out of their sockets. It was absolutely terrifying." Rosolie says he's experienced backlash from animal rights supporters, concerned for the snake. "People all over the world have been calling me saying they hope I get Ebola, that they hope I die, that they think I'm heinous and inhuman and horrible, and that I'm 'the Hitler of animals'," Rosolie said.

AND YOU THOUGHT DOG LOVERS WERE BAD!

8 > RELIGION? MORE ARIZONA

Steven Anderson, the foot-stomping, bible-thumping pastor of Arizona’s small Faithful Word Baptist Church, says the bible states that LGBT people deserve to die for “committing an abomination.”Church pastor: Cure for AIDS is to kill homosexuals: "ALL HOMOS ARE PEDOPHILES. THERE I SAID IT!"

Anderson has caused controversy in the past for sermons demonising Jewish people and women’s involvement in church services, and calling for “socialist devil” President Barack Obama’s death.

AND I THOUGHT FATHER EGBERT'S SERMONS WERE AWFUL!

9 > WHAT'S IN A NAME

North Koreans cannot name their children Jong Un, and those who already share the name of the country's leader must change it. That's according to a directive from 2011 obtained recently by KBS, South Korea's state-run broadcast network. It's unclear how many people the ban affects, but Kim is a common Korean last name, and both males and females can be named Jong Un. The North Korean directive was dated January 2011, the KBS report said.

Similar directives prevented North Koreans from naming their children after Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's father, and Kim Il Sung, the North Korean leader's grandfather. Kim Jong Un took over after his father's death in December 2011. Kim Jong Il had ruled since 1994 after his father's death. Their line has ruled North Korea since the country was established in 1948.

The name bans are an attempt to build cults of personality around the Kim dynasty. Their birthdays are important national holidays and North Koreans are required to hang their portraits on their walls.

WHO WOULD WANT TO NAME THEIR KID JONG PUTIN?

10 > FROM GERMAN TEEN TO ISIS JIHADIST: A FATHER'S STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND MANFRED

Karg says he doesn't know how his eldest son, Alfons, became mixed up with radical Islamists. Whatever happened, the German pensioner's 19-year-old son from Hamburg is now dead, one of at least 60 Germans killed fighting alongside ISIS militants, nine of them in suicide attacks, according to German authorities.

Karg says two young men with an "immigrant background" knocked on Alfons' mother's door to tell her of his death in Syria last summer. "When she opened up, they said: 'Congratulations, your son is now in paradise,' " he says. Karg adds they showed her a photograph of his bullet-ridden body and his goodbye letter, neither of which they let her keep for fear the police would use the items to track the young men down.

DEAR JOHN?

11 > KALASHNIKOV'S NEW SLOGAN? 'WEAPONS OF PEACE'.

Seriously?

"The rebranding is a symbol of changes in the way our business works and our product lines that have been long in the making," Alexei Krivoruchko, Kalashnikov's chief executive, said at Tuesday's unveiling. "The new brand will reflect our main principles: reliability, responsibility and technological efficiency."

The gun was made for the defence of a country that was living through the cold war and had to be prepared for a major intervention,' says the video voiceover. 'The simple and reliable AK was also in demand well beyond the borders of the Soviet Union.

It precipitated not just a technological but a social revolution. Freedom movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America could at last fight back against professional colonial armies. The AK-47 gave them the chance to demand rights and achieve justice. This is a weapon which helped people defend their families and futures, and demand the right to a peaceful future.

EVERY MAN A GUN! SHOOT THE BASTARDS!

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