■ UNITED STATES
Alabama sex toy ban upheld
The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys, ending a nine-year legal battle. An adult-store owner in Montgomery had asked the justices to throw out the law as an unconstitutional intrusion into the privacy of the bedroom. Sherri Williams said she plans to sue again, this time on free speech grounds. "My motto has been they are going to have to pry this vibrator from my cold, dead hand," she said. Residents may legally buy sex toys out of state for use in Alabama, or they may buy sexual devices in Alabama that have a "bona fide medical" purpose.
■ UNITED STATES
Man wants leg back
A South Carolina man who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with a North Carolina man who found it. John Wood's leg was amputated near the knee after a 2004 airplane crash. The limb, which Wood had kept in the smoker in a storage facility after he lost his home, was bought by Shannon Whisnant last Tuesday in an auction held by the storage company because Wood had missed his monthly payments. Whisnant gave it to police, who turned it over to a funeral home. But Whisnant, who put a sign on the empty smoker charging US$1 to US$3 for a look, now wants it back. Wood said he was not interested in Whisnant's offer to share custody and profits.
■ UNITED STATES
Love birds urged to give up
Lapeer County Sheriff Ron Kalanquin wants to help two Michigan bank robbery suspects tie the knot. "I'll volunteer to marry them in the jail if they surrender," he said on Monday. A 24-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman are suspected of taking about US$5,000 in a bank robbery on Sept. 19. Detectives determined that the money was used to buy wedding rings, pay back rent and pay the woman's attorney for work done in a child custody case, the Flint Journal reported.
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