US Rescues The Jews Of Yemen

The US State Department has been involved in the covert relocation of Yemeni Jews to the United States, a report says.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, about 60 Yemeni Jews have so far been moved to the US.

The report added that the first group, consisting of 17 people, arrived in New York on July 8, after leaving the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on a flight for Frankfurt.

The Journal added that about 100 other Yemeni Jews may also be transferred to the United States, while a number of others could be flown to Israel.

US officials and the leaders of the Yemeni Jewish community cited what they called “mounting harassment” against the community members as the reason behind the operation.

The paper also said that the Yemeni government had agreed to issue exit permits for Jewish families at the request of the United States.

“It was the embassy’s view, and the [State] Department concurred, that because of their vulnerability, we should consider them for resettlement,” a spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration told the Journal.

Today’s Top Adoptable Dog

This sweet girl’s name is Jade:

Learn more about Jade here: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=14951121

Story Update: Chaz Bono Likes Being A Man

Now that he’s finally in the body he always felt he belonged in, Chaz Bono says he’s enjoying something that took decades to accomplish.

“It’s a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn’t have done this before that,” Bono, formerly known as Chastity, tells, “Entertainment Tonight” in a taped interview.

Born the daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono, Chaz, 40, has been undergoing a female-to-male sex change since March, a process that has already had significant physical changes on his body.

“It lowered my voice,” he says. “Fat redistributes, muscle growth, hair growth, sex drive increases.”

One thing that didn’t need changing:  His mental and emotional concept of himself as fundamentally male.

“I always felt like the male from the time I was a child. There wasn’t much feminine about me,” he says. “I believe that gender is something between your ears, not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early ’90s. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it.”

It was turning the milestone age of 40 that spurred him to action.

“I was turning 40 and I thought it’s now or never. I want to still feel vibrant and be able to enjoy my life in a male body and not wait until I am an old man.”

Learn more about Chastity’s transformation to Chaz: http://alindenauer.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/sonny-has-a-son-chastity-bono-becoming-a-man/

Man Stole Ferret By Shoving It In His Pants

It’s one thing for shoplifters to hide plunder in their pants. But a live ferret?

Police said a homeless man in north Florida did just that. And he made it out the door before being challenged. Rodney Bolton, 38, was charged with theft over the $129 animal that police say he took from a pet store in Jacksonville Beach.

A 17-year-old witness confronted Bolton in the parking lot and was bitten by the animal after the man allegedly shoved it in the teen’s face.

That confrontation makes the ferret a “special weapon” under Florida law. So Bolton also faces battery charges for dangerously wielding the animal.

Calls to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department to see if Bolton has a lawyer were not answered.

Two Words That Shouldn’t Go Together: Naked Clowns!

There are all sorts of crazy products released each day, but one particularly odd one recently came to light.  It’s the 2010 Naked Clown Calendar.

It involves 12 months of naked clowns dedicated to a great cause. The calendar uses real clowns from the San Francisco Circus Center. And you’ll be relieved to hear the clowns aren’t totally nude; they use strategically placed props in front of their sensitive areas.

Proceeds from the calendar benefit the MS Society. The project was inspired by Judy Finelli, an accomplished juggler who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1989 and is now unable to perform.

Interested? You can buy it here: http://www.nakedclowncalendar.com/.

Boulder Businessman Offers Cover To Naked Pumpkin Runners

A Boulder restaurant wants to help participants in the annual Halloween “Naked Pumpkin Run” avoid arrest by providing them with low-cut orange underwear.

About a dozen people running naked in Boulder while wearing freshly gutted pumpkins on their heads were ticketed last year for indecent exposure. No one was convicted but there was concern that under state law the streakers would be labeled sex offenders if they had been.

Hapa Sushi owner Mark Van Grack says he is handing out the orange undies because he’s afraid the runners will be arrested if they bare all. It doesn’t hurt that the underwear also sports the restaurant’s name on the rear along with a reminder to “run responsibly.”

More than 100 people took part in last year’s run down Boulder’s pedestrian mall.

Toilet Inspectors Roam Through Poland

Patrols of two, wearing white overalls, are boldly entering toilets across Poland to check whether the country is loo-ready for the 2012 EURO soccer championships.

Lots of loos pass the test, they say, but others — particularly those that date back to pre-1989 Communist days — are less enticing.

The toaketa2012.pl project, organized by a company manufacturing toilet equipment, aims to encourage ordinary Poles to join the patrols.

The project is looking ahead to 2012 when thousands of fans will come to Poland and Ukraine for the European Soccer Championships.

So far the patrols have visited 200 toilets in Poland’s six major cities and have conducted a survey among foreign tourists, which showed hotels and airports provide good quality toilets, while railway and bus stations lag behind.

The Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper commented drily that the country’s toilets were, however, still better prepared for the championship than its soccer players — who failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Man Flees Robbery In His Boxers

Police say a burglar broke into an Adrian, Michigan home before fleeing in only his boxer shorts and a pink baseball cap.

The Daily Telegram reported the 25-year-old Detroit man broke into the home through a front window and removed valuables from the woman’s bedroom.

Police said he was surprised by the home’s residents and fled on foot wearing the woman’s baseball cap and his boxer shorts.

He was arrested a short distance away and told an officer his clothes were taken by several girls, whom he was chasing. His clothes were found nearby.

He was charged with home invasion, larceny in a building and cocaine possession.

Hebrew, Hindi, Other Scripts Get Web Address Approval

The nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses approved Friday the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on Latin characters in a decision that could make the Web dramatically more inclusive.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — or ICANN — voted to allow such scripts in so-called domain names at the conclusion of a weeklong meeting in Seoul, South Korea’s capital.

The decision by the board’s 15 voting members was unopposed and welcomed by applause and a standing ovation. It followed years of debate and testing.

The result clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.

“This represents one small step for ICANN, but one big step for half of mankind who use non-Latin scripts, such as those in Korea, China, Israel and the Arabic speaking world as well as across Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world,” Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO, said ahead of the vote.

Domain names — the Internet addresses that end in “.com” and other suffixes — are the key monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post.

Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English — A-Z — as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.

Today’s Top Adoptable Dog

This handsome boy’s name is Jake:

Learn more about Jake here: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=14133809