Fun_People Archive
6 Nov
WhiteBoardness - 11/5/97

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu,  6 Nov 97 00:14:04 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: WhiteBoardness - 11/5/97

Excerpted-from: WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, November 05, 1997

Srinagar, India:

India said on Tuesday it had installed the world's highest public telephone
booth on the 20,000-foot Siachen Glacier in Kashmir.

The Indian Defense Ministry said that soldiers fighting to keep the last
post of a disputed 450-mile Himalayan border in Kashmir with Pakistan can
now phone home.

"The Indian army established an STD-PCO (subscriber trunk dialling-public
call office) for soldiers in Siachen Glacier . . . it becoming the world's
highest PCO," it said in a statement.

Hundreds of Indian troops are dug in along the 50-mile-long glacier where
Indian and Pakistani troops routinely exchange artillery fire.

At least 2,000 Indian army soldiers have lost their lives and more than
10,000 crippled in the fight to control the glacier that Indian troops
captured in 1984, army officials said.

Temperatures in the icy glacier region reach a high of 15 degrees below zero.
==========

Canberra, Australia:

A jilted woman masquerading as a gardener and disguised with a false beard
and moustache tipped a bucket of wet cow dung over the bride as she prepared
for a spring garden wedding in Canberra's Commonwealth Park, a court was
told yesterday.

Jacqueline Martin, 39, had intended to throw the manure over her former
lover, Joaquin Montero Prego, with whom she had a four-year relationship
before he dumped her last August and then married another woman, now Juana
Prego, on Oct 11. But when Martin found Joaquin surrounded by friends before
the wedding ceremony she decided that the bride would be a better target.

Martin upended the bucket over her rival, covering her white dress, said to
have cost A$2,700 (about L1,150) and soaking her hair and face. The best
man had his jacket ruined and several guests were splattered.

Martin stood looking at her handiwork "with a smirk on her face", several
friends said outside the court. Loli Fernandez, the bride's best friend and
bridesmaid, took off her own gown which the bride changed into in time for
the wedding ceremony.

The groom was unaware of what had happened as he waited nervously throughout
the 45-minute delay before the ceremony began. He was told that there was
a problem with the dress, Miss Fernandez said.

Martin, who pleaded guilty to assault, will be sentenced next Tuesday.
==========

Morganstown, England:

An inept robber who forgot to put on his mask when he raided a sub-post
office armed with a fake gun and his savings book bearing his name was
jailed for five years yesterday.

Mark Cason, 29, stole almost L10,000 but had to ask two children to open
the door for him because his hands were full. They wrote down the number of
his car as it got stuck in traffic.

Later, Cason placed the cash in a hotel safe and asked the receptionist not
to tell the police he was there.  He then ran up a L3,000 drinks bill,
buying champagne for other guests.

"Most armed robberies are committed after meticulous planning and with
professional execution," Charles Cook, defending, told Cardiff Crown Court.
"This was the furthest from that that one could imagine. It was bungling
and badly executed to say the least."

Cason, a former paratrooper and nightclub doorman, was L14,000 in debt when
he decided to raid the post office at Morganstown, near Cardiff, close to
where he grew up.

"Cason had forgotten to put on the balaclava and gloves he had purchased
and hurriedly donned a pair of sunglasses," said Stephen Hopkins,
prosecuting. "He asked sub-postmaster Geoff Hibberd if the post office was
open and approached the counter with his savings book. He went behind the
counter, drew the replica gun and said: 'This is serious - give me the keys
to the safe.'

"But Cason could not open the safe and eventually asked Mr Hibberd to do it
for him. He put more than L9,500 in a bag and started to leave. But he could
not open the door because his hands were so full."

The children opened the door for him and he made a slow escape through heavy
traffic to a railway station. He caught a train and later arrived at the
Bradbury Hall Country Club, Stockport.

He registered under a false name, placed the stolen money in the hotel safe
and told the receptionist: "If the police ask for me, I'm not here." After
a two-day stay, most of which he spent drinking, he was arrested by armed
police. When asked his occupation, Cason replied: "I am an armed robber."

Cason admitted robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.

© 1997 Peter Langston