”Kennedy’s Underwear Nets Thousands”
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. — President Kennedy’s boxer shorts netted $5,000 during an auction Saturday of the former first couple’s belongings.
The more than 300 “intimate” items were put up for sale by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ personal secretary and attendant, CNN reported.
The women had been storing the items for nearly 50 years.
The yellowed World War II Navy-issue shorts with “Jack Kennedy” sown in the band, opened at $700, CNN said. Within seconds, the item went to a telephone bidder for $5,000.
A campaign notebook used during the 1960 presidential campaign went for $22,500. The book contained 22 pages of notes, speech ideas and personal reminders.
A badly soiled autographed copy of Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address sold for $10,000 and a pair of JFK’s pajama pants went for $2,000, CNN said.
A one-piece black bathing suit worn by Jackie Kennedy sold for $750.
”Two Arrested in Rent-a-Corpse Scam”
CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe — A hospital mortician and his assistant in Zimbabwe face charges of allegedly renting out corpses to motorists so they can buy fuel.
Fuel is scarce and expensive throughout the country where lines at service stations can be as long as one mile.
Most stations, however, give preference to people with burial orders or those taking dead relatives for burial, the state-owned Herald reported Saturday.
The scam was discovered Thursday after a hospital security guard noticed a body being returned to the morgue, the paper said.
An investigation revealed the motorist had paid the mortuary workers to “rent” the corpse long enough to fill up his car. He, too, was arrested, the newspaper said.
The suspects will all be arraigned next week on charges of violating dead bodies, officials said.
The men used only bodies awaiting paupers’ burials, the Herald said.
Fuel prices have increased 600 percent since February, the BBC reported.
”Lawyers Caught in Large Boo-Boo”
AUKLAND, New Zealand — Three prominent New Zealand lawyers are red-faced after being photographed wearing red tinsel wigs and false breasts.
Auckland crown prosecutor Simon Moore, his assistant Christine Gordon and lawyer Gray Cameron were snapped wearing the costumes while returning to New Zealand in April, the Wellington Dominion-Post reported Saturday.
The trio had been in Pitcairn as part of a team issuing sexual assault and abuse charges against nine men, some of the allegations involving teenage girls.
Moore explained Friday after the charges were laid, the prosecutors headed home by boat. With one night on board left, during a party, the costumes appeared and photos were taken.
Moore said he did not see anything inappropriate in the prank, despite the nature of the crimes the team had dealt with in Pitcairn. He conceded some people might be offended, however, and apologized for that.
”Three New Windows Flaws Reported”
REDMOND, Wash — The Microsoft Corp. has announced three new Windows security flaws, including one that could give remote attackers total control over almost any system.
The IDG information service said Microsoft is warning customers of a flaw in the way messages are handled, allowing a sophisticated hacker to run code on a remote computer.
The flaw affects most versions of Windows.
IDG reported that in addition to the so-called RPC vulnerability, Microsoft warned Thursday of two other security flaws — both rated “Important” by the company.
Bulletin MS03-027 deals with Windows XP, which could potentially allow an attacker to run a file on a remote machine.
And in Bulletin MS03-028, Microsoft warns of a vulnerability in its Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 that could allow an attacker could send malicious code to another user.
Microsoft is providing users with security patches at its web site.
”End Nears for Netscape Browser”
MOUTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The end is near for the Netscape browser, with AOL announcing it will not produce any new releases.
The BBC said Thursday many of AOL’s staff members who worked on Netscape programming are moving to the Mozilla Foundation, which will now take over the browser’s development.
AOL became the owner of Netscape in 1998 when it bought the software company that was founded in 1994. Netscape initially distributed the browser without charge, as a result gaining large numbers of users.
In 1995, Netscape had one of the most successful debuts ever on the US stock market. But by the end of 1998, the company was rapidly losing ground to the Microsoft Corporation’s Internet Explorer that is included, and integrated, with Windows.
Today, Internet Explorer commands 96 percent of the net browsing market.
AOL said it will give the Mountain View, Calif.-based, Mozilla Foundation $2 million, as well as domain names, trademarks and intellectual property.
”Loan Sharks on the Rise in Japan”
TOKYO — Japan’s failing economy has spawned widespread loan-sharking — usurious lending, at annual interest rates in excess of 6,000 percent.
The practice has grown dramatically during Japan’s years of economic malaise, fueled by spiraling debt loads and the expansion of organized crime syndicates into the lucrative trade, according to police and lawyers who handle such cases.
Even though bank interest rates in Japan are low, millions of households have fallen so desperately into debt that they don’t qualify for traditional loans.
Last year, more than 122,000 Japanese called authorities for help after borrowing money from loan sharks or turned up on customer lists when police raided lending operations, according to the National Police Agency in Japan.
Experts estimate that the real number of victims exceeds 1 million, the Washington Post reported.
”Scientists Hail Unique Dolphin Birth”
SAN DIEGO — Sea World is proudly touting the births of two bottlenose dolphins via the artificial insemination of their mothers by once-frozen sperm.
The calves, one male and one female, were born in May to bottlenose dolphins who were impregnated with sperm from a dolphin belonging to the U.S. Navy, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
It marked the first time bottlenose dolphins had been bred with sperm that had first been frozen and then thawed, Dr. Tom Reidarson told the Times. All earlier efforts used fresh semen, he said.
”Anti-Depressant Treats Binge Shopping”
STANFORD, Calif. — Anti-depressants could help people who are unable to quit shopping, according to researchers at Stanford University in California.
While many people enjoy the satisfaction of buying a new pair of shoes or finding a bargain at a sale, some are unable to stop themselves from spending, particularly when depressed.
Compulsive shopping disorder leads people to “binge shop” and can lead to thousands of dollars in debt, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
The Stanford researchers said the anti-depressant citalopram, available as Cipramil or Cipralex, reduces compulsive shopping tendencies in those affected by the disorder.
Citalopram belongs to a class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Of the 24 compulsive shoppers studied who had suffered financially or personally because of binge shopping for more than a decade, those who were medicated lost the urge to shop.
”Inmate Requests Solitary Confinement”
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — While awaiting trial, an inmate in a South African jail asked to be put in solitary confinement because he could not afford to pay cellmates for a bed.
Jerome Kunene, 34, and other prisoners who are waiting for their trial dates have written several letters to prison officials complaining about abuse by other inmates, the South African newspaper, the Capetown Argus, reported.
Kunene, a self-proclaimed herbalist and a pastor, said he pays “murderers” every week for access to the television and a bed. If he did not pay, the Argus reported, he would sleep on the floor or the toilet.
Kunene is charged with the killing of his wife, who had a restraining order against him. In early June, Duduzile Kunene, 33, was stabbed several times and her throat was slit after she left her job at Woolworths.
”Callers for Former Gov. Get Jokester”
CHICAGO — An Illinois man is having some fun with his cell phone at the expense of former Gov. George Ryan — who once used the same number.
Gil Ross, a partner in a downtown Chicago firm, has been receiving phone calls for Ryan since Ross activated the phone in late June, the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald reported Friday.
Politicians from all over the state have called for Ryan on Ross’ new black Nokia. And it didn’t take Ross long to figure out he had been assigned the former governor’s old mobile phone number.
“I answer: ‘Cash, small unmarked bills only in a paper bag — how can I help you?'” Ross said. “As a general rule, it results in immediate hang-ups.”
Poking fun at Ryan, whose inner circle was plagued by corruption scandals, Ross also likes to joke to callers about which federal agencies might be listening on the line.
Ryan said the phone number could have been his and was not amused by Ross’ phone routine, the Daily Herald reported.
”Satanic Tunnel to be Blocked”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque’s mayor has ordered a flood control tunnel sealed because of satanic writing and a dead cat inside.
“This is far too dangerous and frankly spooky,” Mayor Martin Chavez said while pointing to a blood-smeared wall perhaps 100 yards inside a dark tunnel.
He ordered city workers to inspect and barricade any similar tunnels, which honeycomb city.
The scene was discovered after a 10-year-old boy found his pet cat dead nearby, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday.
“We don’t have a lot of flood control tunnels of this size. But as a result of this, each one of them will be investigated,” Chavez said.
The father of the shaken boy said he is offering a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the people who killed the cat. The money would come from “my own funds,” he said.
”Philadelphia Sports Fans Decry Hoagie Ban”
PHILADELPHIA, July 18 (UPI) — The Philadelphia Eagles have declared the city’s beloved Hoagie sandwiches a threat to security and fans are not happy.
It’s not the sandwiches, either — it’s all food and drink from outside Lincoln Financial Field.
Eagles President Joe Banner insisted this week that by bringing in outside food, “you’re putting the fans’ lives at danger.”
Such bans have been adopted by 14 of the 31 other NFL franchises, the Philadelphia Inquirer said.
Adding to the fans’ dismay is that the stadium’s food concessions will be run by Sportservice Corp. of Massachusetts, where they don’t even have hoagies.
One defiant — and anonymous — fan said he plans smuggle in hoagies when he takes his son to a game, but he doesn’t “even want to think about where people are going to put their hoagies in order to get them in.”
Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.