■ United States
Dummy fetches US$15,000
A makeshift mannequin that failed to fool police monitoring the high-occupancy vehicle lane on a highway has fetched US$15,000 in an auction on eBay, with proceeds going to charity, the buyer announced. A company called Video Professor bought the Styrofoam head, coat hanger, and clothing stuffed with newspapers from carpool-lane scofflaw Greg Pringle, 53, said Brian Olson, a spokesman for the company. Olson said the computer tutoring company would take Tillie to various events and later auction her off again for charity in June. As part of his sentence handed down earlier this month, Pringle agreed to donate any profits from a Web site -- launched to free "Tillie" after she was impounded by police -- and the auction to a driver safety awareness program.
■ United States
Office workers slack off
A quarter of workers who use a computer admit using it to hunt for a new job on company time, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Among workers who believe their Internet use is monitored by their bosses, one-quarter use their work computer for job-hunting, according to research conducted for professional staffing company Hudson Highland Group Inc. "It's one of the ways employees deal with work-life balance issues," said Robert Morgan, chief operating officer at Hudson Talent Management, one of the company's divisions. "Because we're spending so much time at work, that's the only time we have to schedule some of those appointments."
■ United States
Fetal tissue is evidence
Doctors performing abortions on girls younger than 13 years old would be required to preserve a sample of the fetal tissue for law enforcement under a bill passed by the state Senate on Thursday. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation could use those samples for DNA tests to help prosecute rapists, said Democratic Senator Roy Herron, the bill's sponsor. "Whoever has sex with a child 12 years of age or younger is committing rape, whether force is involved or not, and they ought to be prosecuted," he said.
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