Minister resigns after underwear dance

Why do politicians get caught doing things their middle support base would never be caught doing ? Imagine the career and public image of a politician who is evicted from office for dancing in his underwear at a parliamentary office party ? Dancing in his underwear ? And why was he forced to resign ? Because he had lied about it and his leader had no choice but to ask him to leave because of the initial denial:

An Australian state government minister was forced to quit following reports that he danced in his underwear at a parliamentary office party, the state premier said Thursday. Matt Brown resigned late Wednesday, only three days after he was sworn in as police minister of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees said.
Rees said he demanded Brown's resignation Wednesday night because the former lawyer and university lecturer -- a state lawmaker for nine years -- initially gave assurances that "absolutely nothing untoward" had happened during the party. "I subsequently put it to former minister Brown late last night that there are too many reports of you in your underwear for me to ignore," Rees told Fairfax Radio Network. "He conceded he'd been in his underwear and that gave me no option but to demand his resignation."

Such a situation is incredible gossip mill for journalists, and such a news is even covered by serious media (and not only the tabloid press); it would have been very embarrassing for both the minister and his leader, the Premier.

Preacher with 86 wives

The standard joke among men is that 'Why would somebody want to marry more than 1 wife ? Handling one itself can be a big task.' In earlier times, before laws and morality settled on marriage being between one husband and one wife, both polygamy and polyandry were permissible. In fact, in the United States, Mormons were initially allowed polygamy, and it was only about a century back that the Mormon Church outlawed polygamy. Islamic practices the world over however allow a man 4 wives at a time, with the injunction that he has to treat them equally, and not more than 4. This is allowed for Muslims in a huge number of countries in the world, even though this may be disliked in many of the Western countries. However, a preacher in Nigeria has thrown this limit to the sky, having 86 wives and is opposing local efforts to get this number down to 4:

A Nigerian court has granted temporary reprieve to an 84-year-old Muslim preacher with 86 wives after local leaders threatened to force him to leave the area unless he divorced all but four of them. Mohammed Bello launched a legal challenge after local chiefs and Muslim leaders in Bida, a town in central Niger state where he lives with his wives and some 170 children, gave him until Sept 7 to comply with Islamic sharia law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives at a time.
The ruling gives Bello temporary protection from banishment while the court decides whether his rights have indeed been violated. The judge adjourned the case to September 18.

This is a tricky case. Even though the Sharia allows 4 wives, the word of the Sharia is treated as the word of god by devout Muslims, and having more than 4 wives would be going against the word of God. In addition, 86 wives would mean that neither can be discharge his proper husband duties to them, and may not even remember the names of all of them.

Mom sentenced for killing baby in microwave

I was horrified when I read this. How can a mother do something like this ? There must be some level of insanity that must be running through this lady, else how could a person actually put their own flesh and blood, their own baby into a microwave and kill the baby that way ? This lady has now been convicted of this crime, and sentenced to life in prison:

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- A woman has been sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for killing her baby daughter in a microwave oven. Arnold was convicted of aggravated murder in the 2005 death of month-old daughter Paris Talley. She was spared the death penalty because jurors could not reach a consensus on the punishment.
Arnold was accused of killing month-old Paris Talley in 2005. A judge declared a mistrial in February, and the retrial began August 18. The jury found Arnold guilty Friday of aggravated murder.

It is shocking that anybody could put a defenceless 1 month old infant into a microwave, and then proceed to actually go ahead with the task of putting the microwave on and killing the baby.