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Moonstruck - Brian Trochelmann pleaded guilty Thursday and may face up to five years in prison for trying to sell a fake moon rock. Trochelmann had maintained for years that his pet rock was obtained by John Glenn and then given to his father by the famous astronaut in recognition of his invention of a space food-packaging process. Trochelmann and his brother Ronald were found out in 1995 when they negotiated an agreement with a Manhattan auction house to sell their extraterrestrial rock for millions. Not only did the brothers fabricate the story about their father's invention and his connection with Glenn, but they were told by at least three scientists with lunar expertise that the rock was your basic garden variety earth rock. Ronald Trochelmann is scheduled to go on trial in November. [Wired News]
More Shooting - A month to the day after the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a lone gunman opened fire at a high school in Conyers, Georgia, wounding six students. The shooting began around 8 a.m. Thursday at Heritage High School when the gunman, believed to be a student at Heritage, opened fire in a common area with a .22-caliber hand-pump shotgun. Authorities said the suspect, who was not identified, was taken into custody almost immediately after the shootings. The victims were taken to area hospitals. None of the wounds are believed to be life-threatening. Meanwhile, President Clinton is visiting the families of the Columbine massacre victims. [Wired News]
Moscow Blast - At least 20 people are confirmed dead and rescuers expect to find more bodies in the wake of a blast that destroyed a nine-story apartment building in the outskirts of Moscow early Thursday. Although authorities first suspected a natural-gas explosion, they now say that they haven't ruled out the possibility of a criminal act. More than three dozen people, including 12 children, were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospitals, and rescue workers continued combing through the debris, although they say the odds of finding more survivors are slim. [Wired News]
Mosque Pit - They didn't kick out the jams, exactly, but you gotta start someplace. Iranian officials swallowed hard over the weekend and tolerated the first pop-music festival since the Islamic revolution 20 years ago. There was no sign of Mick Jagger or Marilyn Manson -- the headliner was Khashayar Etemadi who, according to the Reuters correspondent, regaled the well-mannered crowd with pop tunes "singing the praises of Shiite religious figures [while flirting] cautiously with the overt romantic themes of Western-made Iranian pop music." But even if Etemadi toed the line, Iran's religious traditionalists were not pleased. If anything, the concert served to underscore the growing rift between reformers and fundamentalists. [Wired News]
Most Wanted - There might be a certain cach involved, but it's not generally a list you want to make. But terrorist Osama bin Laden and accused abortion-doctor killer James Kopp have been added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. The G-men would like to apprehend bin Laden for the bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year. As for Kopp, he's wanted in the slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, shot dead by a sniper last August as he stood in his kitchen. [Wired News]
Mother Nature's Tears - Tears, saliva, and the urine of pregnant women -- they all contain a powerful protein that laboratory scientists have successfully used to kill the AIDS virus. A New York University biochemist said the protein, called lysozyme, may one day yield more effective AIDS drugs since lysozyme is a natural human compound. The new study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The search for the anti-HIV protein began when scientists realized the babies of HIV-infected women were somewhat protected from the virus and speculated that pregnant women made more virus-killing proteins to protect their developing babies. [Wired News]
Move It, Tubby - You may not have the sleekest body on the block, but you don't have to be a gym rat to have a healthy heart and lungs. A pair of studies published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association conclude that performing routine household chores -- like raking leaves -- and walking more can lower cholesterol and body fat levels while keeping your vitals fit and happy. So the next time you run out of beer, walk to the mini-mart. OK? [Wired News]
Move Over, Tinky - Jerry Falwell has apparently tired of Tinky Winky, and has found something new to hate: Lilith Fair. Lesbianism rates highly on Jerry Falwell's hit list, so it's hardly surprising that an essay in his National Liberty Journal zeroes in on the women's music festival that plays 40 dates across North America beginning 8 July. The Journal essay attacks both the fair's symbolism (Lilith, according to the writer, is a "pagan figure" often depicted "in lewd poses ... kissing a female demonic figure") and the fact that it supports Planned Parenthood. Concert organizers were also taken to task for distributing condoms at the door. The point was lost on Falwell, however, that if they're handing out condoms, perhaps the concert-goers aren't all of the Sapphic persuasion. [Wired News]
Mr. Potatoe Head - "I am uniquely positioned and prepared to be president." With that declaration to the Indianapolis Star News, former Vice President Dan Quayle set the stage for his announcement that he'll be making a run for the White House next year. Quayle, that notoriously poor speller and master of the malaprop, told the paper that he'll announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination on Thursday's edition of The Larry King Show. "I can assure you I am serious," he said. "I am committed." Well, he should be. [Wired News]
Mr. Potatoe Mashed - Dan Quayle is dropping out of the Republican presidential race, according to a Quayle campaign worker who says the former vice president can't raise enough money to mount a serious challenge to George W. Bush. With 9 percent of the vote, Quayle is a distant second to Bush. It's not clear whether the Texas governor is a better speller than Quayle. But Bush has already raised US$50 million dollars, and that's five times as much as any other GOP candidate. [Wired News]
Mrs. Candidate? - Elizabeth Dole is stepping aside as head of the American Red Cross, and political supporters hope she'll campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Leaders of the "Draft Elizabeth 2000" campaign say the wife of 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole would also be a strong vice presidential candidate. [Wired News]
Mucho Bucks - If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That seems to be the attitude of Argentine President Carlos Menem, who has suggested that his country seriously consider ditching its national currency and adopting the US dollar instead. And the idea is receiving serious consideration at the highest levels in Buenos Aires. Inspired perhaps by the advent of the euro, and cognizant of the fact that the Argentine peso is not exactly a robust currency, Menem sees the dollar as a sheet anchor against the kind of ruinous inflation that crippled the country in the late 1980s. Not everyone in Argentina is thrilled by the idea -- there's a considerable amount of national pride at stake -- but economic stability is a potent lure. Count on hearing a lot more about this. [Wired News]
NATO's Green Light - Slobodan Milosevic's intransigence has finally pushed the Europeans to the limit. Saying that all attempts to reach an accord with the Yugoslav president over Kosovo had failed, NATO's secretary-general authorized air strikes against Yugoslavia late Tuesday. When the bombs will fall remains uncertain, but the Yugoslavs reacted by declaring a state of emergency. The Russians, too, reacted sharply. Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, en route to the United States for an official visit, literally ordered his plane turned around over the Atlantic Ocean and returned to Moscow. The Russians, traditional allies of the Serbs, have steadfastly opposed allied intervention in the Kosovo crisis. [Wired News]
NBA Settlement - It won't be much of a season, but at least there'll be one. With a drop-dead date staring them in the face, NBA players and owners finally hammered out an agreement Wednesday that will salvage what's left of the 1998-99 NBA season. Players' union head Billy Hunter and league commissioner David Stern, who have been avoiding each other like the plague, did the deal even as the rank-in-file was convening in New York to vote on a proposal to reject management's final offer. No details were immediately available. [Wired News]
NFL Tabs LA - Like a debutante with her choice of swains, the National Football League pretended to dither for a while before batting its eyes in the direction of Los Angeles, the league's preferred choice for expansion all along. By a 29-2 vote, NFL owners voted to award the league's next franchise to the City of Angels, without actually shutting the door on runner-up Houston. If LA fails to put together an acceptable ownership group and a plan for a new stadium within six months, the Texans will get the nod, they were told. [Wired News]
NHL Player Killed - Steve Chiasson, 32, a defenseman for the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League, was killed early Monday when his pickup truck flipped over on a highway outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Chiasson was ejected from the truck and died at the scene, state troopers said. The Hurricanes had just returned from Boston, where they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Bruins. Chiasson, a native of Barrie, Ontario, was a 14-year veteran, playing for the Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames before being traded to the Hartford Whalers, which subsequently relocated to North Carolina. [Wired News]
Nach Paris! - It's an old joke. Question: Why does the Champs d'Elysees have so many trees? Answer: So the German army can march in the shade. Those fears appear to be rising again in France, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune, which quoted the permanent secretary of the French Academy as saying that Germany poses the biggest threat to European peace in the 21st century. Maurice Druon dismisses the recent history of warm relations between the two old antagonists, saying that the Germans are re-emerging as an imperial, dominant force in Europe. With Germany assuming a more prominent role in continental politics, and with Berlin once again the most important capital east of the Rhine, Druon is not the only Frenchman hearing jackboots in his sleep, the Herald Trib said. Better start sewing those white flags, Maurice. [Wired News]
Napalm Ribs - Whatever Col. Johnson puts in his BBQ sauce, it works. Col. Johnson's Thermo-Nuclear Sauce won first prize at a "ribfest" in Naperville, Illinois earlier this month. Now, a couple of bottles of the stuff have reportedly exploded in separate homes in suburban Chicago, injuring no one but wreaking havoc, spewing sauce as far as 12 feet from ground zero. At least no one can accuse the colonel of false advertising. It's right there on the label: "I Survived Col. Johnson's Thermo-Nuclear Sauce, No Guts, No Glory." [Wired News]
Near Miss - When Miss America 2000 glides down the runway in Atlantic City next year, her mascara running and her rhinestone tiara glittering in the klieg lights, it's possible that she'll still be recovering from an abortion. Or getting over a nasty divorce. That's because the Miss America Pageant is relaxing its stringent 60-year-old rules that required a contestant to have never been married or pregnant. Starting next year, she'll only be asked to sign a document affirming that she's not currently married or pregnant, and is not a parent of either a natural or adopted child. In the end, it's not a case of the pageant waking up facing the new realities of womanhood; court documents make it clear that the rules were changed to avoid getting tangled in New Jersey's discrimination laws. [Wired News]
Net Romance, Suicide - A romance that blossomed over the Internet ended tragically when a 28-year-old French woman apparently committed suicide after being kicked out by her erstwhile lover. Police are calling Julie Yada's death a suicide, although the actual cause of death has not been established. Yada reportedly flew from Paris to the United States to meet a 24-year-old man with whom she had begun an Internet romance with six months ago. After spending a couple of nights together in a motel in suburban Detroit, the man threw her out. Police did not identify the man, but the police chief of Farmington Hills, Michigan didn't mince any words: "It's an extremely sad story. This woman comes all the way from Paris, is unstable and suicidal, is used for sex and thrown out the following day, and gets no help whatsoever." Although the man has not been charged with a crime, an investigation continues. You get the feeling it might last a while. [Wired News]
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