Armpit maniac

Singapore, June 15 (Reuters): A Singapore man with a penchant for sniffing women’s armpits has been sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims.

The 36-year-old, who the Straits Times daily reported was mentally unstable, had previous convictions for drug and sex-related offences. He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings and their homes.

Dr Horror

New York (Reuters): A New Jersey dentist behind a scheme to steal body parts from corpses, including that of British journalist Alistair Cooke, faced relatives of the dead in court last week and apologised for the anguish he caused. Michael Mastromarino, 44, in March admitted to leading a $4.6 million operation that stole body parts from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The ring dismembered more than 1,000 cadavers and sold parts to doctors who transplanted them into patients.

Online rules

London (Reuters): Britain’s etiquette bible has come to the rescue of social networkers who are at a loss about how to behave with online decorum. Debrett’s have helped to compile a new set of “golden rules” for devotees of sites like Facebook and Bebo. The rules were put together after a research by telecom company Orange showed that almost two thirds of social networkers are frustrated and confused by online etiquette.

Duct trap

Sydney (Reuters): A woman who attempted to escape from jail in Sydney had to be rescued by police after she got stuck in an air-conditioning duct. The 22-year-old woman had just been refused bail by a Sydney court when she attempted the escape, but then spent about an hour stuck in the air vent before she was rescued.