STRANGE , ODD AND WEIRD NEWS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Convicted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for a fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a message to potential imitators and to victims who demanded harsh punishment. Scattered applause and whoops broke out in the crowded Manhattan courtroom after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the maximum sentence to the 71-year-old defendant, who said he lives "in a tormented state now, knowing all the pain and suffering I've created." Chin rejected a request by Madoff's lawyer for leniency and said he disagreed that victims of the Ponzi scheme were seeking mob vengeance. "Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll," Chin said. The judge said the estimate that Madoff has cost his victims more tha...

Abundant new and rare marine species have been discovered on a deep-sea mountain range in the middle of the North Atlantic, scientists say. Exotic worms, colorful corals, unusual sea cucumbers, and a plethora of weird fish are among the creatures that scientists spotted on a recent expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an underwater range that divides the North Atlantic Ocean in two At least one new species, a tiny crustacean called a seed shrimp, is likely new to science, researchers said. Another exciting find was a "spiral poo worm," an animal first identified in 2005 that deposits spiral-shaped feces, some of which have been found in the fossil record dating back hundreds of millions of years. "We found lots of these primitive species," said expedition leader Monty Priede, director of the Oceanlab research center at Britain's University of Aberdeen. The expedition brought together an international team of 31 scientists coordinated by the Norway-based MAR-ECO...

We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50. Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back. A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. A cardiologist at UCLA tells TMZ Jackson died of cardiac arrest. Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive. A source inside the hospital told us there was "absolute chaos" after Jackson arrrived. People who were with the singer were screaming, "You've got to save him! You've got to save him!" We're told one of the staff members at Jackson's home called 911. La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead. Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson...

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Two Koreans at the Mbiama base of a popular Korean firm, Daewoo Nigeria Limited, Rivers State, are at the center of a sex scandal that is now a subject matter before an Ahoada Magistrate Court in the state. One of them, Mr. Moon, is the company’s General Manager, Engineering and Construction. Their accuser is Miss Juliet Agada, an erstwhile housekeeper employed by one of the company’s contractors, Ekine and Davids, who alleged that her sack was as a result of her failure to satisfy the sexual demands of the Koreans, Messrs Moon and Jang. Juliet’s lawyer, Mrs. Hilda Desmond-Ihekaire, is demanding a whopping N44million from the Koreans. The girl is also urging the Ahoada Magistrate Court to issue a warrant of arrest against the two accused expatriates. Induced ejaculation In one of the two sworn affidavits in support of her case, Juliet alleged that in the course of performing her duties, Mr. Moon sexually harassed her, “on many occasions”. Citing a specific incident, she deposed that on...

YUCCA VALLEY — A 12-year-old boy’s lung was punctured when a fellow sixth-grader stabbed him after school Wednesday afternoon.The boy’s father said Friday he is recovering in an area hospital, where doctors performed emergency surgery to put a drainage tube in his chest. “He’s been in terrible pain,” said the Yucca Valley man, who asked that his family’s identity be withheld.The stabbing occurred after the victim was told the other boy, who is 13, had inappropriately touched a female friend of the victim. The victim confronted the older boy about the incident and told him not to touch the girl again. The victim’s father said he was told the 13-year-old brought a knife to school Wednesday and told others he intended to use it to stab the boy who had confronted him. The man learned that after classes, as groups of students walked home from school, the boy with the knife asked the 12-year-old if he was afraid and showed him the weapon. The 12-year-old pushed the 13-year-old to the ground,...