Surfer fights Off shark, keeps surfing

A surfer in Australia fought off a seven-foot shark with his board — and kept on surfing, a lifeguard said.
Simon Letch returned to Sydney's Bronte Beach 30 minutes after surviving the attack, despite the beach being closed because of the danger, lifeguard Aaron Graham said.
"He was pretty calm about it, very laid back," said Graham, who was on the beach when the 40-year-old surfer rode his damaged board back in after the attack.
Letch was sitting on his board about 100 feet offshore when the shark attacked. He told a newspaper that he rammed the board, a recent 40th birthday present from his girlfriend, into the shark's mouth. He said it was a bronze whaler.
"I shoved the board at it like a barge pole," Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph quoted him as saying.
He said the shark released the board and he quickly headed for shore.
 

Rogue trader signs for Galway

It took 10 years and a spell in prison, but rogue trader Nick Leeson -- the man who broke Barings Bank -- has finally found a new home for his financial skills: an Irish football club.
Ireland's Galway United have appointed Leeson as their new commercial manager despite a CV that many companies might find more than a little off-putting.
The world's most famous rogue trader single-handedly ran up 791 million pounds in trading losses at Barings, the UK's oldest investment bank.
"I have been looking for a new challenge," Leeson, who served more than four years in prison, told the club's website.
"It is inevitable I will always be associated with Barings Bank but after everything which has happened, I have moved on and I hope other people have as well."

Wrong bath lands policeman in hot water

A Japanese policeman returning from an evening's drinking has landed in hot water after climbing into a relaxing hot bath in someone else's house.
The 21-year-old officer from Nara, western Japan, was arrested and charged with unlawful entry after being discovered late on Friday night in the bath tub of a house about 50 yards from his own, police said.
"I can't believe it wasn't my bath," the policeman said, who was off duty on the day of the incident, as telling investigators.

 

Barred from making slavery tax claims

A New York man was temporarily barred on Friday from preparing income tax returns for others because he has been including bogus tax credits such as reparations for African-American slavery and segregation.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office said it obtained a restraining order against Kevin Hardy of Mount Vernon that immediately barred him from working as a tax preparer until a full hearing can be held.
Prosecutors said that the Internal Revenue Code does not provide any such slavery reparations tax credit and that Hardy repeatedly prepared returns for others making such claims.

Kasparov hit with chessboard

Garry Kasparov, the world's former No. 1 chess player who quit the professional game last month to focus on politics, said he had been hit over the head with a chessboard in a politically motivated attack.
Kasparov, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was not injured Friday when he was hit with the chessboard after signing it for a young man at an event in Moscow.
A spokeswoman for Kasparov, Marina Litvinovich, said the assailant told the chess champion: "I admired you as a chess player, but you gave that up for politics."
She said the unidentified attacker — who did not reveal his political allegiance — tried to hit Kasparov again but was hauled away by security guards.
"It was a fairly nasty incident, it was not very pleasant psychologically," Kasparov said.
 

Don't drive behind this guy

The motto for one would-be South Korean driver likely is "if at first you don't succeed, then try, try again another 271 times."
Seo Sang-moon passed the academic part of his driver's license examination on his 272nd attempt earlier this week.
The repairman, from a small town in the southeastern part of the county who will soon turn 70, said he was illiterate and used the test process to teach himself the rules of the road because he could not read them in a manual.
Since the oral exam was launched, Seo took the test as often as he could, paying about $1,000 in fees along the way. Each failure taught him a little more, and after 271 attempts, he was able to get the minimum score needed to pass the academic test.
"He has been coming here for more than five years and we regard him almost as being one of the family," an official from the exam office said by telephone.

Tailpiece

Pick-up lines

Is that a mirror in your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants.
Those clothes would look great in a crumpled heap on my bedroom floor.
If I gave you a sexy negligee, would there be anything in it for me?
How would you like to have your bellybutton tickled? From the inside.
I work at a condom factory. Want to help me test my product?
I'll bet you 10 bucks I could get all your clothes off in 30 seconds.
Playing doctor is for kids. Let's play gynecologist.