A judge in Painesville, Ohio, ordered a charity worker who stole a holiday kettle containing about US$250 to spend the night homeless. Nathen Smith, 28, was to spend the night anywhere but a house, said Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti. Smith was fitted with a GPS device to track his moves. "My initial reaction was, `Wow.' But I don't think the sentence is too harsh," said Smith, who expected to spend Thursday night in a homeless shelter. "I can see the judge's point because what I did, I shouldn't have done. Now I've got to pay the consequences." The Salvation Army charity uses kettle donations to help pay for food, clothing and shelter for the homeless. Smith, who also received a three-day jail sentence, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of theft.
■ BRAZIL
Woman's hair hacked off
Two men on a motorcycle grabbed a housewife, pulled out a machete and cut off the hair she had been growing for two decades, police said on Thursday. The woman, whose name was not released, told police she was walking to church when she was assaulted late on Tuesday, police officer Antonio Williams da Silva said by telephone from the northeastern city of Aracaju. "She was an evangelical and said she hadn't cut her hair for 20 years," da Silva said. "It must have been nearly a meter-and-a-half long.
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