■ United Kingdom
Fear gout? Drink more wine
Researchers have cheering news for grumpy old port drinkers. Beer drinkers are far more likely to develop gout than those who quaff wine. But the age-old hypothesis linking men's alcohol consumption generally to the common form of arthritis appears to have been verified. A study of the lifestyle habits of 47,000 US male medical staff, including dentists, osteopaths and vets, suggests that two or more beers a day increases by two-and-a-half times the risk of developing gout by comparison with non-beer drinkers. A couple of shots from a bottle of spirits daily increases the risk by 1.6 times, while two glasses of wine has no effect on the chances of big toes or joints being inflamed by the painful but treatable condition.
■ United Kingdom
Artist tosses cookie job
It looks like an ordinary old-fashioned cookie tin, but a hidden drawing of two dogs having sex in the grass makes it an instant collectors' item. Biscuit makers Huntley and Palmers sold thousands of tins of treats featuring a copy of an early 20th-century illustration of a genteel picnic -- without realizing that a disgruntled employee had hidden sexually explicit drawings in the scene. Lawrences Auctioneers is hoping collectors will bid £250 (US$446) when one of the tins goes on sale this Friday. The artist had lost his job at the cookie company and decided to take revenge by including a small picture of two dogs having sex and another of a pair of naked lovers. A label written on a jam jar suggested it contained something other than jam.
■ United States
Shoot Mom, not the TV
A Florida teen charged with hiring an undercover policeman to shoot and kill his mother instructed the purported hitman not to damage the family TV during the attack, police said on Thursday. Police in the Florida city of Fort Myers arrested the boy, 17-year-old Carlos Chereza, on Tuesday on a charge of soliciting to commit first-degree murder. Chereza offered the detective US$2,000 which he expected to inherit from his mother's bank account, and gave him the keys to the family apartment, a map of the apartment and a picture of his mother, the police report said.
■ United States
Aqua-robber caught in time
A bank robber wearing a wetsuit under his clothes tried to make a scuba-diving getaway but was tackled by police before he reached the water, authorities say. Police subdued the man Thursday on the shore of Budd Inlet in Washington state after a car chase, a crash and a sweaty half-kilometer dash through the woods, during which he tried to sprint to the water while lugging diving gear and a backpack filled with the stolen cash, Sergeant Ray Holmes said. Charles Coma, 35, was jailed on suspicion of robbery.
RSS