In the days after US President Bush won a second term, the number of US citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site shot up sixfold, prompting speculation that unhappy Democrats would flock north. But official statistics show the number of Americans actually applying to live permanently in Canada fell in the six months after the election. On the face of it this is not good news -- Canada is one of the few major nations seeking to attract immigrants -- but Immigration Minister Joe Volpe was philosophical. "We'll take talent from wherever it is resident in the world. I was absolutely elated to see the number of hits and then my staff said `You know what? A hit on the Internet is after all just a hit'," he said.
■ United States
Robbery broadcast on TV
Viewers of a late-night cable TV program called police when they realized that instead of Shopping Mania they were hearing an attempted robbery, and had caught a glimpse of at least one of them as they left. Gary Spirito, the auction's owner, said. "He said, `Give me your car keys.' And I said `Well, they're out there in the car.'" The men fled when police were summoned by viewers, but officers caught up with the two suspects. Eddie Crisp Jr., 23, and Timothy Suggs, 22, were both on parole for prior theft and other convictions.
■ United States
Man sentenced to crochet
An ex-convict who pleaded no contest to sexually abusing his daughter was sentenced to 320 hours of community service crocheting blankets. The prosecutor said he had been ready to dismiss the case against Robert Wayne Thompson for lack of evidence. The charges surfaced during a dispute over custody of the child, when Thompson's ex-wife accused him of sexually abusing their 8-year-old daughter. Thompson had earlier served five years in a Virginia prison for sexual assault. The criminal case became shaky after the girl told the judge in the civil case that her mother had told her to say Thompson abused her. So the judge agreed last week to a plea bargain that requires Thompson to register as a sex offender, be under probation -- and spend 320 hours crocheting afghans.
■ United States
Passenger jailed for assault
A business executive was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a sleeping woman seated next to him on a flight from Dallas to Boston. On April 5, Deepak Jahagirdar, 55, laid a blanket over the 22-year-old woman who was returning from a vacation, unfastened her seat belt, unbuttoned her pants and assaulted her by touching her genitals. The woman pulled Jahagirdar's hand from her pants and fled to the rear of the aircraft where she reported the assault to the flight crew. The crew alerted four US Secret Service Agents who were on board the flight, returning from an assignment in Texas. Jahagirdar briefly tried to escape state police by trying to flee in the walkway between the plane and the Boston airport.
■ United States
Strip club tries hard sell
The Century Lounge has for years wooed passing trade with the sign, "Live Nude Nude Nudes." But last week it stepped up the rhetoric with the new sign, "Vaginas 'R Us." "We don't approve of the signage and we don't appreciate it," said Laurie Hughes, executive director of Gateway to LA, a local business group. Club operator Howard White said, "In sort of a naive way, I felt that there was nothing terrible about it since The Vagina Monologues was on Broadway forever."
RSS