World's Top Five Weird, Funny and Hot News of June 05, 2013
Spanish police get serious on crime using Twitter jokes
MADRID — Spain’s national police force is using social network Twitter to track down criminals through jokey messages to citizens that has led to 300 arrests on drug charges
in the past year and become a model for other forces worldwide. The account, @policia, is on track to reach 500,000 followers this weekend and is the second biggest of any law enforcement agency after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Officers in Madrid handle 1,200 messages on the account in an average day and answer queries for 17 hours a day, giving it greater reach than any public or private Spanish institution.
Carlos Fernandez Guerra, a former journalist and the only member of the team who is not a police officer, writes all the account’s tweets which can be retweeted up to 10,000 times and shrugs off criticism that the tone is too jokey.
We use language that is attention-grabbing, related to things that are being tweeted at the moment,” Fernandez, 39, explained in his office on the third floor of a police station in central Madrid. Fernandez is behind messages such as: “Ah, a few beers on a terrace laughing with your girlfriends, watching the hot boys go past ;) Don’t take your eye off your handbag and your phone.
Town sends dog poop to irresponsible owners
A small town in Spain has given new meaning to the phrase "doggy bag." For a campaign to crack down on irresponsible dog owners in the town of Brunete, volunteers spent a week in February on the lookout for dog owners who failed to scoop their canine's excrement, the Telegraph reported Tuesday. They approached the owner and struck up a conversation to determine the dog's name. "With the name of the dog and the breed it was possible to identify the owner from a registered pet database held in the town hall," a council spokesman said. The volunteers scooped up the waste and packed it in a box with the town's insignia before sending the parcel, labelled "Lost Property," to the negligent owner's home. The campaign, which included 147 deliveries, won an award at the Ibero-American Advertising Festival this weekend. Brunete now reports a 70% drop in the quantity of dog waste found on its streets, the Telegraph reported.
Brazil pulls ‘happy prostitute’ campaign
SAO PAULO - Brazil’s health ministry on Wednesday pulled an outreach campaign urging sex workers to use condoms after coming under fire from conservative lawmakers. “I’m happy being a prostitute” was the slogan on a web campaign for International Prostitute Day that also encouraged sex workers to not be ashamed to seek medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The campaign was published on the health ministry’s website and social media sites last weekend, and has since provoked a wave of criticism, especially from evangelical legislators in Brazil’s congress.
“We are fighting childhood prostitution and here comes a campaign encouraging it,” federal deputy Liliam Sa said in a recent congressional committee meeting. Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, a rising star in the ruling Workers’ Party who is expected to run for governor of SIao Paulo state next year, said in a Twitter post late Tuesday that the campaign had gone ahead without his authorization. In the tweet, Padilha said the decision to scrap the campaign “came before any protests for or against it.”
$500 worth of sex toys stolen from car
A thief in Oregon made off with a hefty bounty of lingerie and blowup dolls. One of five cars hit by a burglar in Sandy, Ore., belonged to Chelsey Coutts, who'd stored $500 worth of supplies for her friend's bachelorette party. Coutts, who said the loot included "lots of toys, blow-up dolls" and "outfits," told Fox-affiliate KPTV: "It was horrible. (The officer) kind of started laughing, but he felt bad so he asked me to describe everything in detail."
Why Teen barred from prom for showing too much cleavage
A U.S. teen says her school "took the magic out" of her prom when it barred her from entering because she was showing too much cleavage. "I feel that it is because I'm bigger chested and there is more cleavage that you can see, and there's nothing I could really do about that," Brittany Minder, 18, of Silverdale, Wash., told Komo 4 News. The school's dress code allows strapless dresses, so long as cleavage, midriff and lower back are covered. But while Minder was told to cover her chest with a shawl, smaller girls in similar dresses were allowed in.
