The Maui Examiner

Bunny Love

NORTHERN ITALY– An enormous pink bunny has been erected on an Italian mountainside where it is anticipated to remain for the next 20 years.
The 200-foot-long plush rabbit lies on the side of the 5,000-foot high Colletto Fava mountain in Italy's Piedmont region.
A Viennese art group known as “Gelatin” designed the giant soft toy. They claim that the behemoth bunny was "knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool".
"It's supposed to make you feel small, like Gulliver,” said Gelatin group member Wolfgang Gantner. “You walk around it and you can't help but smile."
Gelatin members say the bunny is not just for walking around–they are expecting hikers to climb up its 20-foot sides and relax on its soft, pink belly.
The giant rabbit is expected to remain on the mountainside until 2025.

Don't the Italians have anything better to do? No, this isn't one of those marshmallow bunnys you find in an Easter basket. It's a 200-foot long, 20-foot high knitted wool bunny gracing a mountainside in Northern Italy.

Politically Naked

WELLINGTON, New Zealand– A Green Party lawmaker who pledged to run naked through the streets if a rival party leader was re-elected said he would honor his word.
Legislator Keith Locke, the Green Party's foreign affairs spokesman, said Monday he didn't want to break an election promise.
He had said he would do the nude dash if rightist Act Party leader Rodney Hide won a parliamentary seat in the Auckland suburb of Epsom. Regarded as an outside chance, Hide romped home in the contest Saturday with a 3,200-vote majority.

Hard To Please Crook

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland– A man held up a hairdresser at gunpoint demanding a free hair cut for his girlfriend, then actually
brought her back to the salon the next day demanding they do a better job.
The gunman, who remains at large, reportedly stormed into the Tschenstochau Salon in the southern Polish town of Czestochowa and forced the owner at gunpoint to dye and cut his girlfriend's hair for free.
But the gunman was obviously unhappy with the result as he brought his girlfriend back the following day, and again at gunpoint, demanded the hairdresser redo the job. The irate crook even insisting on the hairdresser giving his girlfriend hair extensions, as he did not like how short her hair had been cut.

Some People Will Do Anything For Money

MARSEILLE, France– According to French judicial sources, a man in his sixties lived with the body of his dead mother for five years in order to receive her 700 euros monthly pension.
The man, a hospital morgue worker, is to be prosecuted for fraud and concealing a death after police found the corpse amongst piles of rubbish in a two-room apartment in the city center.
Police were called to the flat on reports of unpaid rent and other bills.
The man had imitated an old woman's voice to deceive the social services.
His mother had died of natural causes at the age of 94.

Humane Society Hires Bush And Hitler

BUCHAREST, Romania– George Bush, Adolf Hitler and Nicolae Ceausescu are being used to persuade people to adopt stray dogs in Romania.
Posters featuring the three leaders with the slogan: "A dog loves you just the way you are" are appearing on billboards across the country.
Hitler was a well-known animal lover who could not abide cruelty to any animals, while Ceausescu, who ran a police state that tortured and murdered thousands, was rarely seen without his two pet dogs, Corbu and Sarona.
George W. Bush is also a well-known dog lover and has two pet dogs– an English springer spaniel named Spot and a Scottish terrier named Barney.

Got Him By The Balls

FORT SMITH, Ark.– The SW Times Record reported that police arrested a woman Sunday afternoon after she allegedly cutting her estranged husband's genitals with a pair of pruning shears.
Police were called to the woman's residence on the report of a stabbing. Upon arrival, police found bloodied sheets in a bedroom of the woman’s home. Cherie Jones, 61, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree domestic battery in connection with injuring Harold Jones.
Harold Jones, 58, had shown up earlier at the residence with some beer and plans to talk things over to try to work out their differences, said detective Cpl. Kris Deason.
Harold Jones had moved out a couple of months ago and into an apartment complex.
Harold Jones went to sleep in a bedroom at his wife’s home and awoke to find Cherie Jones cutting his genitals.
"He didn't lose anything," Deason said. "It's all there. It's just injured."
Harold Jones left the residence and drove to his apartment complex where someone called police.
He was later transported to St. Edward Mercy Medical Center where his condition was unknown late Sunday.
Police said Cherie Jones told authorities she couldn't remember what happened.

Really Low

LOS ANGELES, Cal.– Three people were arrested after posing as Red Cross workers collecting money for Hurricane Katrina victims, the Associated Press reported Sept. 17.
The three hoaxers, who were wearing badges that read "Red Cross Volunteer," had set up a table outside a Best Buy store. The table held a donation box and fliers that read "Help Now. American Red Cross Relief For Hurricane Katrina," said police Detective Matt Ferguson. The table had been outside the store since Monday, Sept. 12.
Liz Nicholas, 22, and Tino Lee, 44, were arrested Sept. 15 on suspicion of fraud and conspiracy. Lee was held without bail and Nicholas was held in lieu of $100,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Web site.
The third suspect, a 14-year-old girl from Pico Rivera, received a citation to appear in Juvenile Court and was released to her parents. She was not identified because of her age.
Police said the trio collected as much as $2,000 in cash, as well as a check for $200.
Federal law bars anyone from impersonating a Red Cross worker to solicit funds on behalf of the agency.