POSTED // Jan 30,2012 - A federal court in Brazil sentenced politician Talvane de Albuquerque to 103 years in prison for ordering four of his aides to kill congresswoman Ceci Cunha so he could replace her in the Chamber of Deputies. Albuquerque was Cunha’s alternate and would have assumed her seat. Albuquerque was also convicted of ordering the murders of Cunha’s husband and two of her relatives. (Associated Press)

POSTED // Jan 23,2012 - Scott Bennett, 45, published a newspaper obituary for his mother, even though she was still alive. Brookville, Pa., police Chief Ken Dworek said Bennett submitted the bogus notice to The Jeffersonian Democrat

POSTED // Jan 16,2012 - After an internal review of the metropolitan Washington, D.C., transit authority showed 645 items missing from one branch, investigators found 74 items in the home of a branch employee.

POSTED // Jan 9,2012 - Andri Lynn Jeffers, 26, admitted trying to rob a gas station in Yavapai County, Ariz., by threatening the clerk with a toy penguin. Authorities said Jeffers told the clerk that the object, which she concealed under her sweater, was a bomb. (The Arizona Republic)

POSTED // Jan 2,2012 - Upset that the news media were devoting too much coverage to crime, Mayor Mike Winder of West Valley City, Utah, began writing upbeat articles using an alias.

POSTED // Dec 26,2011 - Merlin Holland marked the 111th anniversary of the death of his grandfather, the writer Oscar Wilde, by unveiling Wilde’s renovated tomb, now declared to be kiss-proof. The oft-visited Paris tomb had been closed for repairs because it was “being eaten away by lipstick” caused by “endless women kissing it,” according to actor Rupert Everett, who appeared at the unveiling ceremony. A glass screen now prevents visitors from touching the stonework, although tourists have already started leaving their lipstick marks on a nearby tree. (BBC News)

POSTED // Dec 12,2011 - The Medford, Ore., City Council voted to allow advertising on the city airport's control tower.

POSTED // Dec 5,2011 - The Air Force is set to certify all of its aircraft to burn fuel made from fat and the oil-bearing plant camelina in 2013

POSTED // Nov 28,2011 - Thailand’s new government directed the Office of Prevention and Suppression of Information and Technology Crimes to step up its crackdown on Internet insults against King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family

POSTED // Nov 21,2011 - Authorities accused Robbie Suhr, 48, of disguising himself by wearing dark clothes and a mask, then attacking a 26-year-old exchange student living with Suhr, his wife and their two children in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.