All five were discovered writhing in agony the following morning, when concerned locals heard moaning coming from the house in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, northeast India and went to investigate.

The authorities confirmed the groom and his relatives had been rendered unconscious by an unknown toxin, then stripped of their cash, jewellery and valuables.

There was no sign of the bride, whom the man married on June 27, or any of her relatives. The police are claiming her as their prime suspect.

Officers say the robbery echoes previous crimes whereby unsuspecting men have been conned into marrying, only to be robbed in similar fashion within days.

Police chief Saharanpur Mukul Dwivedi said it was too early to say whether the missing bride had executed the plot herself, or whether she was assisted by others.

The husband, 28, his brother, 24, and an 18-year-old cousin were all recovering but the groom’s parents, aged 55 and 60, were critically ill, The Times said.

On the other hand, thousands of Indian brides are being abandoned by their British Asian husbands.

Four years ago, a secondary school teacher married a British man in a wedding arranged by relatives. Shortly after the ceremony, her husband, who was in his 50s, left for London with the promise he would send for her. At first all appeared to go well.

“He would visit two to three times a year. Whenever he came to India, we had a good time,” she said. Contact would only be made between the couple about a month before the man was due to return to India.

On one visit he claimed her application for a spousal visa to the UK had been refused. “It was like being a prostitute you take along and have a good time with and then leave behind,” says 35 year old Suman.

Mrs Kaur, women’s rights activist, says there are between 15,000-20,000 ‘holiday brides’ in India.

In the Doaba region of Punjab, Mrs Kaur discovered a dozen women huddled together, clutching their marriage documents and wedding photographs. The youngest was barely out of their teens.

Often these women never remarry, claiming their lives have been ruined, in the rural socially conservative parts of India, where divorce is frowned upon.

One such marriage only took place, after the bride’s parents had sold their home and paid the groom $25,000. In many places in India it is still customary for the bride’s parents to pay a dowry of cash, clothes and jewellrey. A British Asian groom can command a dowry of up to $45,000.

However, UK matrimonial expert, Tahir Mahmood, helps arrange marriages and believes British men are the victims. “The brides only marry them in order to obtain a British passport.”

“Morally Afghanistan should give access as a priority to those countries that have helped Afghanistan massively in the past few years,” said Karzai. He said Japan’s status as Afghanistan’s second- biggest donor, after the United States, should allow Japan to enjoy special access to Afghan resources, with estimated values that range between 1-3 trillion dollars.

Karzai made this public announcement during a five-day visit to Japan. He thanked the Japanese leader for his support and said the Afghan government is working to fight corruption.

He planned to visit the Japanese trading company, Mitsubishi Corporation, to discuss mining investment. Karzai said he was concerned about a looming international battle over his country’s untapped mineral wealth.

A New York Times analysis suggests that the vast majority of Afghans do not share Karzai’s optimism about the deposits. Challenges include a lack of infrastructure and security, with some of the deposits located in Taliban strongholds.

“Countries with a history of conflict have perverse effects from mineral wealth — more war, more corruption, less democracy and more inequality,” said Terry Lynn Karl, a political science professor at Stanford and the author of “The Paradox of Plenty,” which shows how the populations of poor countries like Nigeria often get poorer after oil is discovered and a tiny elite benefits.

At the same time as Karzai’s announcement, news reports surfaced that Afghanistan and Pakistan planned to negotiate with Pakistan-based insurgents, the Haqqani’s militia.

The talks are a reminder that both Afghanistan and Pakistan each have an agenda independent of its relationship with the United States and that they may draw different lines in deciding how and when to make peace.

American military deaths in Afghanistan total 1,103. In May 2010, the total cost of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq surpassed $1 trillion, according to National Priorities Project’s Cost of War.

“He had gone to South Africa for the World Cup without the authority of the military hierarchy. This is an act of insubordination,” an army spokesman said.

General Kazura, a senior figure in President Paul Kagame’s regime and a member of the very closed circle of rebel leaders who ended the 1994 genocide with him, is also in charge of operations and training in the Rwandan Army.

When the military realised he travelled to South Africa without permission, he was recalled and arrested upon arrival in the capital Kigali. Kazuara has been accused of high treason for ‘leaving the national territory without the consent of his superiors’.

The arrest of General Kazura, a Tutsi who grew up in exile in Burundi, came after the arrests of two other high-ranking Rwandan army generals in April.

Arrests however, are not uncommon in soccer.

In 2002 police arrested national league soccer referee, Yochanan  Chibotero, on suspicion of being involved in a match-rigging scandal.

The ongoing investigation had already seen four soccer officials arrested on the same game fixing scandal, involving active and retired referees and linesmen.

Officials believed the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg.

The fixing was achieved through several methods:

• The referee or linesmen agreeing a result with a bettor before a game began, in exchange for a hefty payoff, amounting to thousands of dollars
• Awarding penalties through false calls, or a foul, or a hand ball in the penalty area
• Referees suspected of prolonging games, or failing to blow a whistle for some fouls
• Bettors placing money on various details of the game, with officials getting the payoff for delivering the goods to win the bets.

Pakistani soccer players

In 2000 a Pakistani football team was arrested while playing some friendly matches in the Afghan city of Kandahar.

The Taleban authorities said the wearing of shorts during a match violated the Islamic dress code, as there was too much flesh displayed.

The players were not only arrested, they also had their head shaved as punishment, before being sent back to Pakistan.

The team were in the middle of their third match, when the Taleban authorities moved into the stadium, arresting 12 members of the squad. Five other Pakistani players managed to escape.

Several spectators were injured in the stampede that followed the arrests.

Urban Golf

So you don’t want to walk the golf green and get all that healthy exercise, or there isn’t one anywhere near where you live. There is another alternative, known as Urban golf. This is where the players attack an innocent warehouse wall with their golf ball. Just make sure you aren’t in line with the ball when it bounces back!

Bike Polo

When you haven’t got any horses, the only way to play polo is on bikes. This fast growing sport is rapidly developing an international competitive calendar.

Unicycle

Once only seen in circuses, or on stage, the unicycle has become a worldwide phenomenon. From acrobats and balancing acts, to mountain racing, to unicycle hockey, the one wheeler has become an overnight sensation.

First introduced in Finland, wife carrying is a sport where male competitors race while carrying a female team mate. The objective is for the male to carry the female, whose job is to help keep the balance, through a special obstacle course in the fastest time. The carrying holds differ from piggyback, fireman’s carry, to Estonian style, where the female hangs on upside-down, with her legs around her partner’s shoulders, as she clings on to his waist.

Major competitions are held in Sonkajarvi, Finland, Monona, Wisconsin and in Marquette, Michigan. In Finland, the prize is the female’s weight in beer.

Wife Carrying Contest

Growing a beard and moustache is a serious business, as seen at the biennial World Beard And Moustache Championships, where men display their carefully manicured extraordinary beards and moustaches. Categories include Dali moustache, goatee and full beard freestyle.

Of course you must have all the right tools, from moustache wax, to moustache nets, brushes, combs and scissors.

Moustache Competition

Rollery Derby

Roller Derby players pride themselves on their fusion of punk grit and attitude, plus genuine athletic talent. The women’s Flat-Track Derby Association held its roller derby’s first national championship tournament in 2007.

Zorbing

While many see this as a purely recreational sport, there is a growing following to Zorbing . Each competitor ‘walks’ down a set trail, inside a car-sized globe of plastic, reaching speeds of up to 50 kms per hour. Not a sport for the faint hearted and there are medical restrictions.

Cardboard Duelling

We have all heard of the knights of old dueling in their coats of armour. The modern knight is very serious about his Cardboard Tube Duelling, where the clang of steel swords is replaced with the dull thudboard of ‘cardboard swords’. Dressed in cardboard box amour, the competitors duel with cardboard tubes.

The ancient sport of Snow Polo was once popular among Turkish emperors. It is played on compacted snow on flat ground, or a frozen lake.
However, polo has not been limited exclusively to horseback. There are now canoe polo, camel polo, elephant polo, golfcart polo, BMX polo, yak polo, and underwater polo.

Ice Polo

”We probably know more about the surface of the moon than we do about some of the vast reaches of our oceans,” said Peter Garrett, Australian minister for the environment, heritage, and the arts.

Here are just a few of the never before found species:

The pink handfish, using its fins to walk, rather than swim along the ocean floor, is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.
Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart, on the Australian island of Tasmania.
It’s taken up to now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species, even though the last sighting of a living pink handfish was in 1999.
All of the world’s 14 known species of handfish are found only in shallow, coastal waters off southeastern Australia.

New species of crab

A new species of crab was found lurking around seamounts 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) deep about 100 to 200 nautical miles (185 to 370 kilometers) off Tasmania.

New Species of Sea Star

This new species of sea star, or starfish, lives among deepwater coral, about 3,658 feet (1,115 meters) below the surface. It was discovered in the Huon Commonwealth Marine Reserve.

New species Brittle Star

A new species of Ophiomitrella brittle star was captured during a survey of two marine reserve areas off the southern coast of Tasmania.

Plesionika Shrimp

A new species of Plesionika shrimp was found living at depths of 1.2 miles (2 kilometers).

• Lawyer: “Was that the same nose you broke as a child?”
• Witness: “I only have one, you know
——————————————————
• Accused, Defending His Own Case: “Did you get a good look at my face when I took your purse?”
The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in jail.
——————————————————
• Lawyer: “What is your date of birth?”
• Witness: “July 15th.”
• Lawyer: “What year?”
• Witness: “Every year.”
——————————————————
• Lawyer: “Can you describe what the person who attacked you looked like?”
• Witness: “No. He was wearing a mask.”
• Lawyer: “What was he wearing under the mask?”
• Witness: “Er…his face.”
——————————————————-
• Lawyer: “This myasthenia gravis — does it affect your memory at all?”
• Witness: “Yes.”
• Lawyer: “And in what ways does it affect your memory?”
• Witness: “I forget.”
• Lawyer: “You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you’ve forgotten?”
——————————————————-
• Lawyer: “How old is your son, the one living with you?”
• Witness: “Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.”
• Lawyer: “How long has he lived with you?”
• Witness: “Forty-five years.”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?”
• Witness: “No.”
• Lawyer: “Did you check for blood pressure?”
• Witness: “No.”
• Lawyer: “Did you check for breathing?”
• Witness: “No.”
• Lawyer: “So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?”
• Witness: “No.”
• Lawyer: “How can you be so sure, Doctor?”
• Witness: “Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.”
• Lawyer: “But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?”
• Witness: “Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “Now sir, I’m sure you are an intelligent and honest man–”
• Witness: “Thank you. If I weren’t under oath, I’d return the compliment.”
——————————————————–
Lawyer: “Were you alone or by yourself?”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “I show you Exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize that picture.”
• Witness: “That’s me.”
• Lawyer: “Were you present when that picture was taken?”
——————————————————–
Lawyer: “Do you have any children or anything of that kind?”
———————————————————
Lawyer: “You don’t know what it was, and you didn’t know what it looked like, but can you describe it?”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “You say that the stairs went down to the basement?”
• Witness: “Yes.”
• Lawyer: “And these stairs, did they go up also?”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “Doctor, did you say he was shot in the woods?”
• Witness: “No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region.”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?”
• Witness: “All my autopsies have been performed on dead people.”

————————————————————

• Lawyer: “Did you know him before?”
• Witness: “Yes sir.”
• Lawyer: “Before or after he died?”
——————————————————–
• Lawyer: “When he went, had you gone and had she, if she wanted to and were able, for the time being excluding all the restraints on her not to go, gone also, would he have brought you, meaning you and she, with him to the station?”
• Other Lawyer: “Objection. That question should be taken out and shot.”
———————————————————
• Lawyer: “And lastly, Gary, all your responses must be oral. Ok? What school do you go to?”
• Witness: “Oral.”
• Lawyer: “How old are you?”
• Witness: “Oral.”
———————————————————
Lawyer: “Now, doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn’t know anything about it until the next morning?”
• Lawyer: “And what did he do then?”
• Witness: “He came home, and next morning he was dead.”
• Lawyer: “So when he woke up the next morning he was dead?”
———————————————————
• Lawyer: “Do you drink when you’re on duty?”
• Witness: “I don’t drink when I’m on duty, unless I come on duty drunk.”
• Lawyer: “Officer, what led you to believe the defendant was under the influence?”
• Witness: “Because he was argumentary, and he couldn’t pronunciate his words.”
———————————————————-

Adam Ramsay, 32, of Flemington, wearing a tracksuit, had driven a delivery van to Crown Casino. He approached the valet, requesting the ‘red car’ after he realized he had locked the van’s keys inside the vehicle.

When Ramsay couldn’t produce a valet ticket for the Ferrari, he was asked to fill out a form. He gave the attendant his real name and address and paid the $30 parking fee, before driving away in the $500,000 sports car.

Crown Casino spokesman Gary O’Neill said sometimes punters reported missing valet tickets to parking attendants. “In those circumstances, we require proof of ID, usually a driver’s license,” he said. “That procedure was followed on this occasion.”

O’Neill said the procedures, which had not failed prior to the incident, would be reviewed. The incident was the first of its kind at the casino.

Van Marcus, Pro Poker Player

Magistrate Peter Couzens said it was “shoddy beyond belief” that it was possible to extract an expensive car from Crown’s car park, with no more identification than a name and address.

Ramsay was charged with one count of motor vehicle theft, after he was allegedly caught refueling the Ferrari at a service station, on Melbourne’s outer northern edge, five hours after it was reported stolen. Police believe more than one person was involved in the theft.

The Ferrari was the property of Poker Pro Van Marcus. Marcus was still inside playing the tables when the robbery took place. It is reported that Marcus won in the region of $168,000 before he discovered his car had been stolen.

In March 2010, a red Ferrari was stolen from a private home in South Perth, in the early hours of the morning. In June 2009 a red Ferrari was stolen in Sydney, New South Wales.

The video shows an excerpt of the man talking to the groom, while giving of a toast, then whipping out a pistol and pointing it at his own head and pulling the trigger. There was an empty sounding click and nothing more.

The gun was taken by another man who shot himself in the temple, but instantly fell to the ground, in front of the horrified bride and groom, as the bullet exploded into his skull.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported that the victim was hospitalized with a serious head wound. The victim is reported as having suffered brain damage and paralysis.

The man who handed the gun over, was arrested and charged with hooliganism. He claims it was only a ‘party trick’ and insisted he had taken out all the bullets. “I expected lots of applause after I did it and never guessed someone would repeat it.”

Russian roulette, a potentially lethal game of chance, is thought to have originated in 19^th century, inTsarist Russia. One bullet would be placed in the gun chamber, the cylinder spun. The inmates would then be forced to put the muzzled against their head and pull the trigger. The prison officials would place bets on who would die. It is understood that years later, during the Russian Revolution, officers would play the ‘game’ in front of comrades. It is thought some were suicidal, while others, just like the victim of the wedding shooting, merely wanted to prove their bravery.

British author Graham Greene claimed that in his youth he often played Russian roulette. Malcolm X says that during his burglary career he played Russian roulette to prove to his partners in crime he was not afraid to die. John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to shoot Ronald Reagan, was known to play Russian roulette, on at least two occasions. William Shockley, co inventor of the transistor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics, attempted suicide by playing a solo game of Russian roulette.

On October 5^th, 2003, psychological illusionist Derren Brown played Russian roulette on British Channel 4. The broadcast was aired with a slight delay, in case anything went wrong. The stunt was condemned as being irresponsible. The incident was in fact classed as a hoax.

A retrospective study showed that over the years, 80% of the victims of Russian roulette, were white, all of them males and the average age was 25 years. Alcohol played a much bigger role than in any other cause of suicide by shooting.

The man looked around but couldn’t see anyone. Lining up to take his shot he again heard “Ribbit 9 iron”.

He looked at the frog and realized it was the frog speaking to him. He decided he would prove the frog wrong. He put his club away and grabbed a 9 iron.

Boom! He hit the ball 10 inches from the hole. He was shocked.

He said to the frog, “Wow! That’s amazing. You must be a lucky frog, heh?”

The frog replied, “Ribbit Lucky frog.”

The man decided to take the frog along with him to the next hole.

“Ribbit 3 wood,” the frog replied when the man asked his opinion.

The guy hit a hole-in-one with the 3 wood.

The man couldn’t believe his luck. By the end of the day the man had played the best game in his life and asked the frog, “OK, where to next?”

The frog replied, “Ribbit Los Vegas.”

Once there the man asked the frog where to go.

“Ribbit roulette.”

“How much should I bet?” the man asked as they approached the roulette wheel.

“Ribbit $3000, black 6.”

The man knew it was million-to-one long shot to win, but after the golf game he was ready for anything.

Boom! The roulette wheel stopped on black 6!

The man took his winnings and booked into the best room in the hotel.

As he sat down in the plush suite of rooms he asked the frog, “How can I ever repay for what you have done?”

The frog replied, “Ribbit kiss me.”

The guy thought why not, after all the frog had done for him.

Puckering up his lips he touched the cold lips of the frog. Instantly the frog transformed into a gorgeous looking girl.

“And that is how the girl ended up in my room,” the man explained to his wife. “Or so help me, my name is not Tiger Woods!”

A friend of mine sent me this in an email saying, “The following is an actual question given on University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so ‘profound’ that the professor shared it
with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have
the pleasure of enjoying it as well.”

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
(absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law
(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some
variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct……leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God.’

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.