■UNITED STATES
Woman keeps dead mom
A Florida woman has been indicted for keeping her dead mother’s body in a bedroom for six years while collecting more than US$200,000 in pension benefits, prosecutors said on Thursday. Penelope Sharon Jordan of Sebastian, Florida, was charged by a federal grand jury last week with Social Security fraud and theft. Police found the decaying body of Timmie Jordan on a bed in a spare bedroom at the mother’s home in late March, when they were called to investigate a report of nuisance cats. Penelope Jordan told police her mother had died in 2003. The indictment alleged Jordan concealed the death in order to receive her Social Security benefits and military survivor’s benefit.
■COLOMBIA
Fake nurse gives vaccines
After a row with her lover, a woman sought revenge by administering fake flu vaccines to 197 people at an institute before being caught, health officials said on Friday. The 26-year-old woman donned nurse’s attire and “vaccinated” 197 people using a single needle at the agriculture institute of Marsella. City health chief German Gomez said it was determined the woman had injected a benign medication into some patients and given water to others, without causing any health risks. Gomez said none of the “vaccine” recipients had been hospitalized at the center and all the victims remained under observation. A professor said the incident was linked to a row with the woman’s boyfriend.
■UNITED STATES
Parton receives doctorate
Award-winning entertainer, businesswoman and education advocate Dolly Parton has a new title. “Just think, I am Dr Dolly,” the country music star said on Friday after receiving an honorary doctorate of humane and musical letters from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Always joking about her buxom figure, she added: “So when people say something about ‘Double-D,’ they will be thinking of something entirely different.” The audience of 1,069 new graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences roared with laughter. Parton, a Tennessee native who is the fourth of 12 children from a poor Appalachian family, is well-known for her philanthropic work. Her Imagination Library sends a book to about 500,000 children each month from birth until they start school.
■UNITED STATES
Robber leaves wallet behind
Police charged Albert Vincent Perkins with robbing First Federal Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday after he left his wallet at the scene of the crime. Police said the robber walked into the bank and ordered the teller to give him all of the US$100 bills. He then walked out of the bank, leaving his wallet on the counter. The teller and a customer in the bank identified the photo on the driver’s license as the robber.
■UNITED STATES
Sex ad used as revenge
A dispute between two nine-year-old girls in Hauppauge, New York, led to criminal charges against one of their mothers, police said, after she allegedly posted an Internet ad seeking sex and then directed respondents to call the other mother. Police said Margery Tannenbaum, who lives on Long Island near New York City, was cited for aggravated harassment after posting a classified ad on Craigslist seeking sex with men. She was accused of giving out the other mother’s phone number to all those who replied by e-mail.
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