Billboard seeks wife for bachelor
Friends say Lance Archibald is a tall, handsome former college basketball player and graduate of Harvard business school. He's also still single at 31, and so they're hoping to speed things up with a billboard and Web site.
"I'm Lance, Let's go out!" reads the billboard on an interstate near Lindon, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
"It kind of came out of discussions we had, that Lance is such a good guy but not married," said Morgan Lynch, CEO of LogoWorks, where Archibald is the director of marketing. "Someone threw out the idea of getting a billboard."
So why the concern over Archibald's marital status? As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members typically marry in their early 20s, the 31-year-Archibald is approaching the male-equivalent of an "old maid."
Friends say they're not sure what the Brigham Young University graduate and former Mormon missionary is looking for but tease "it's taking a little longer than usual for a guy with these credentials."

 Woman delivers baby boy in toilet
A woman and her husband said they delivered their baby boy in the toilet at their home after hospital staff told the mother she was not ready to give birth.
The couple, Leah and Richard Robles Jr., said they spent five hours at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital on July 9 but went home after they were told she was not ready to deliver. Fifty minutes after arriving home, Leah had the baby in the toilet after feeling the urge to use the restroom.
The baby, Richard Robles III, is healthy.
The hospital's spokeswoman, Wendy Flores, said she could not comment because of federal patient privacy laws.
Leah, who also has a 5-year-old daughter, said she and her husband went to the hospital because she was past her due date, bleeding and having contractions less than two minutes apart. When the couple returned home, Leah used the toilet, and suddenly realized she was having the baby.
She yelled out to her husband, "I think I'm having the baby."
Her husband yelled back, "No you're not, honey. Come back to bed."
A few seconds later, Richard Robles III emerged face up in the toilet.
Richard Jr. scooped him out of the water and held him. Then the couple cleaned him off and wrapped him in blankets, they said. Firefighters who arrived at the home said the parents did everything right.

Thailand hopes to boost babies' brainpower
The government will soon present Thai couples having their first baby with a set of gifts designed to boost the youngster's brainpower, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday.
"The brain is like the CPU in a computer...the practice of thinking will develop different parts of the brain to work together and to boost the power of thinking," he said in his weekly radio address.
The gift sets, to be distributed by the Health Ministry, will include a parenting handbook, children's story books and items to help develop child's cognitive and artistic abilities, Thaksin said.
Distribution will begin on Thursday, which is the 53rd birthday of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. The prince's wife, Her Royal Highness Srirasmi, gave birth to a son in April this year.

  

Vampire fraudsters take bite of Sicilian's savings
An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.
The man, a cabaret singer, and his girlfriend took the money from their victim over four years by selling her pills at 3,000 euros each that they said would abort the Anti-Christ's son.
Police uncovered the fraud after the 47-year-old woman's family became concerned when they discovered she had spent all her savings, local news agencies AGI and ANSA reported.


Improper attire could mean court citation
Clothes may not make the man but they do make an impression. And if witnesses and defendants aren't dressed properly in front of some northwestern Arkansas judges, they could find themselves in contempt of court.
Once a man testified in a battery case in Rogers Municipal Court, wearing a shirt that asked on the front: "Wanna raise some hell?" The back read: "Hell yeah!"
Judge Doug Schrantz found him in contempt of court after learning the man had another shirt he could have worn. Circuit Judge Tom Keith upheld Schrantz' decision and sentenced the man to 24 hours in jail.
Keith said suits and ties aren't required, but a full set of clothing — clean — is expected. He does not want men wearing earrings or any piercings on the eye, nose or lip.
Circuit Judge David Clinger said he doesn't expect people to wear tuxedos but said there is a middle ground.
 

 Florida mailman wins Hemingway look-alike contest
A Florida mailman credited his persistence with winning Key West's annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike competition, beating nearly 160 snowy-haired men resembling the Nobel Prize-winning U.S. writer.
Bob Doughty, 61, of Deerfield Beach, Fla., a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier clad in a wool cable knit turtleneck, said his favourite Hemingway book was "The Old Man and The Sea."
He won the contest, held late on Saturday, on his 13th attempt. "Longevity and patience. Keep trying," he said.
The 25th annual Hemingway Days festival, in this island city at the tip of the Florida peninsula, celebrates the July 21 birthday of Hemingway, born 106 years ago.
At this year's event, competition organisers welcomed Richard Hemingway, 44, of Davison, Michigan, onstage as the fourth and youngest child of Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide in 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.
"I was born five days before Ernest died," said Richard Hemingway, who recently started using the writer's last name after being known as Richard Steel.
He said he learned at age 43 that Ernest Hemingway was his father. His mother, a one-time Key West resident and friend of playwright Tennessee Williams, told him the news shortly before she died.

Blair spent $3,130 on makeup in six years

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has spent more than 1,800 pounds (US$3,130) of taxpayers' money on makeup and cosmetic artists over the past six years, according to the government.
In a written answer to Parliament, the government revealed Blair's Downing Street office had spent 1,050.22 pounds (US$1,826.66) on cosmetics for the prime minister's media appearances since 1999. In the past two years, a further 791.20 pounds (US$1,376.14) had been spent on makeup artists.
The details were released by government official Lord Bassam in a written response to a question tabled by Lord Hanningfield, a member of the main opposition Conservative Party.

Tailpiece

Larry's bar

A man goes to a shrink and says, "Doctor, my wife is unfaithful to me. Every evening, she goes to Larry's bar and picks up men. In fact, She sleeps with anybody who asks her! I'm going crazy. What do you think I should do?" "Relax," says the Doctor, "take a deep breath and calm down. Now, tell me, exactly where is Larry's bar?"