HOW BIZARRE NEWS (4/20/09)

JUSTICE FROM BED

A German judge has ordered her trials to be held by her bedside after being hospitalised with a broken hip. Karin Walter, 59, ordered lawyers, witnesses and handcuffed defendants to take part in the hearings at St Vincenz hospital in Limburg.

The first case involved Christopher Gross, 24, and Mary Fiedler, 35 who are accused of killing their eight month old daughter Siri. Another featured a man who punched a bouncer in a pub fight and a third where a 71-year-old man is accused of the attempted murder of a taxi driver.

Under German law, all the charges would have been scrapped if the judge had been unable to continue with the trials. "The judge has to stay immobile for a long time but she is determined to remain working on these cases," said a court source.

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A PREGNANT WOMAN HAD HER CAR AND PHONE STOLEN . . . BUT SHE TRACKED DOWN THE THIEF BY TRACING HIS PHONE CALLS:

Last Monday, a thief in Joliet, Illinois (--about 50 miles southwest of Chicago), stole a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder that belonged to Mike and Lindsay Ryan.

Now, most of us in that situation would probably just file a police report, let the insurance company know what happened . . . and start looking for a new car. But not Lindsay. Lindsay was determined to get her car back.

So what did she do? It seems that when the Pathfinder was stolen, Mike's cell phone was inside it. So Lindsay decided to check the phone records online to see if the thief had been dumb enough to use it. And guess what? He WAS. Lindsay started dialing the phone numbers the thief had called, and eventually tracked him to ONE phone number . . . which she proceeded to call 38 times over the next few hours. And when someone finally answered, Lindsay said, quote, "Your number is on my husband's cell record 18 times. I know you know where my Pathfinder is, and where the boy who stole it is. If you don't tell me, you will be charged as an accomplice in this auto theft."

Five minutes later, the thief HIMSELF called Lindsay. According to Lindsay, he said, quote, "You're a crazy [blank] for calling us 38 times [and] keeping us up all night. You can have your car back." Then he told her where she could pick up the car. --Now, the police have issued an arrest warrant for the unidentified 14-year-old boy who's suspected of stealing Lindsay and Mike's SUV. (Chicago Sun-Times)

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IT TURNS OUT LAUGHTER REALLY *IS* THE BEST MEDICINE:

We've all heard that "laughter is the best medicine", right? Well, according to a new study . . . there might actually be some truth to that. Listen to this . . . --Researchers from Loma Linda University split 20 high-risk diabetes patients into two groups . . . and gave each the exact same treatment.

The ONLY difference was that one group was ALSO asked to watch comedy of their own choosing for at least 30 minutes a day, usually sitcoms or funny movies. So what happened? After just two months, the comedy-watching group had already lowered their stress levels. And after a year, their levels of GOOD cholesterol had risen by 26%.

Meanwhile, the group that DIDN'T watch comedy boosted its levels of good cholesterol too . . . but only by 3%. And in the comedy group, the risk of inflammation and cardiovascular disease decreased by 66%. But it only decreased by 26% in the group that didn't watch comedy.

A guy named Lee Berk led the study. He says, quote, "The best clinicians understand that there is an intrinsic physiological intervention brought about by positive emotions such as mirthful laughter, optimism and hope." --In other words, laughter really is good for your health. (Live Science)