They say good things happen to good people, but apparently these days even the bad guys have luck. An alleged drug kingpin Khanh Nhat Bui won $1.35 million on lotto, just as the police investigation closed in on him for involvement in international heroin trafficking syndicate.

Police targeted Bui and his family for a long time. During the raids on the family properties in 2005, $350,000 was seized in cash. The investigation continued after that and finally in December last year Bui was charged for Heroin trafficking.

The investigators believe he brought blocks of heroin from Vietnam and distributed it to his dealer network.

His former associate revealed the win: “Everyone in the community knows that Ca (Bui’s nickname) won the Lotto. Ca told me that he won $1.35 million,” and legal sources confirmed that Bui won lotto prize in 2006 in the middle of police investigation.

I guess money really does stick to money.

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A hermit (from the Greek erēmos, signifying “desert”, “uninhabited”, hence “desert-dweller”; adjective: “eremitic”) is a person who lives in seclusion and/or isolation from society. According to Sociologist Isacco Turina modern hermits no longer wear long beards and hide away in caves, they live in apartments and surf the Internet just like you or me.

“At the risk of sounding like a caricature, the average hermits are the sort of people who belong on the plains,” he said. “However,” he added, “many have found it is perfectly possible to be totally alone in the middle of a bustling city.”

While working on his new book ‘The New Hermits, The Flight from the World in Modern Italy’ Professor Turina tracked down 37 hermits. He said that most of them were “around 55 years old, and that they had decided to drop out of the rat race when they were between 35 and 50.”

“More people are opting to lead a hermit’s life and turn their backs from the modern world, “although there is no institutional guide on how to do it,” adding that “around 60% of hermits are female.”

As professor Turina said there are now as many as 1000 hermits in Italy, with several hundred more dotted across Europe and the US. According to him, their return started in 1983 when the Vatican offered “full recognition” to hermits who were willing to devote their lives to the solitary “praise of God”.

A company called Spiritour even offers “hermit holidays” in the dunes of Morocco, while Ictus Voyages have a similar retreat in the Sinai desert. Who knows, maybe we could use a break from our lives. I know I certainly would.

According to reports at least 48 people from India’s Kottayam district have lost their sight after staring at the sun hoping to see an image of the Virgin Mary that allegedly appeared above the house of a former hotel owner in Erumeli.

The house has been the subject of rumors for months. The hotel owner, who has since moved, reportedly claimed other miracles happenings in his home, like the statues of the Virgin Mary in his house crying with tears of honey, and bleeding oils and perfumes.

Despite the warnings from the city, the health authorities and church officials regarding the dangers of looking at the sky and exposing the eyes to the sun, 48 cases of sight-loss caused by photochemical burns on the retina have been recorded since Friday.

“All our patients have similar history and symptoms,” said Dr. Anamma James Isaac, an ophthalmologist at the St. Joseph’s ENT and Eye hospital. “they have developed photochemical, not thermal, burns after continuously gazing at the sin.”

According to Dr James Isaac the patients are mostly girls in 12-26 age group. The youngest patient is 12 and the oldest 60. “Most of them were looking at the sun between 2 and 4 pm, when UV1 and UV2 rays are harshest,”
“Most patients may hopefully improve their vision. But there may be long-term effects on the retina,” he added.

All churches in the area have disowned the miracle, but despite warnings, and the potentially harmful effects of the sun to their eyes, believers are still flocking in front of the house where the divine image is said to have appeared. Apparently there are quite a few people still seeking the miracle.

Can fate really be that blinding?

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands—Like a herd of antelope, jockeying and shoving for position, 150 young women raced down Amsterdam’s most famed fashion street in stiletto heels Thursday, racing for a $15,000 prize.

The race on the P.C. Hooft street called the “Stiletto Run” is only three years old but has quickly grown in popularity and spawned imitation races in Germany, Sweden, Poland and Russia.

The race’s motto is “Shopping is a Sport” and friendly competition is encouraged—though not always observed.

“At the start there was a lot of pushing, you really get elbowed over,” said Fauve Stukje, 18, who came with a small entourage and a big pink sign—but failed to win, show or place.

She said she slightly regretted her choice of shoes, which were nearly 4 inches high—a little higher than the 3 1/2 inch minimum.

Tamara Ruben, 25, from the town of Veenendaal, claimed first prize in the 380-yard race, running so smoothly you might think she was wearing sneakers.

Asked how she would spend the money, she said: “Anything but high heels.”

BEIJING—A spurned Chinese wife set fire to more than 400 cell phones owned by her and her husband after he walked out on their marriage, a news agency reported Friday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the 37-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Wang, was arrested for arson.

The couple had owned a successful retail phone business in Weifang, the eastern province of Shandong. However, their shaky relationship hit rock bottom when her husband left her on March 3, the news agency reported, citing the local Qilu Evening News.

Overcome with despair, the woman gathered up their entire stock of more than 400 new mobile phones, reportedly valued at more than 300,000 yuan ($42,000), and set them on fire, before walking out of the house, the report said.

Neighbors who saw smoke coming from the house called firefighters, who quickly extinguished the blaze.

TULSA, Okla.—Two fortune cookies helped Tulsa police make an arrest after a pair of break-ins Chinese restaurants. Terrence Middleton, 30, was booked Friday on charges of second-degree burglary and attempted second-degree burglary after police responded to a burglar alarm to find him with more than $20 in coins and the cookies in his pockets, Officer Leland Ashley said.

Middleton was being held on $15,000 bond.

Ashley said police were able to link Middleton to the Asian Express that was robbed because he had possession of the same type of fortune cookies that were at the restaurant.

The alarm went off at the Asian Express about 14 minutes after one sounded at the Chinese Chef Restaurant down the street Thursday night, Ashley said.

When officers arrived, both restaurants had their front doors broken. At the second restaurant, the cash register had been pulled open.

Minutes later, officers stopped Middleton, who was walking down the street, and he dropped various coins and a prison identification card, Ashley said.

Ashley said it appeared there was nothing stolen from the first restaurant, and all that was missing from the second restaurant was $20 in change—and the fortune cookies.

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia—A man in Prince George, British Columbia, thought he had the perfect way to propose to his high school sweetheart. Instead of popping the question on a moonlit Caribbean beach this week, though, Aaron Tkachuk, 24, wound up popping the question to Jennifer Rubadeau, also 24, at an airport security screening station.

A screener at the Prince George airport, Adam Buhler, insisted on having a closer look at the contents of a small box in the toe of a sock. Inside the box was a white gold, diamond and ruby ring.

Tkachuk decided to propose on the spot, and other travelers and security personnel cheered as Rubadeau said yes.

CLEVELAND—A scrawny, black and white female kitten has apparently survived a trip across the Pacific Ocean and North America inside a shipping crate. Cleveland Animal Protective League Executive Director Sharon Harvey says a Cleveland company that received the crate of spooled steel coil Friday found the kitten inside one the spools.

Harvey says the mother cat and other kittens found in the crate were dead. The crate came to Samsel Supply Co. from Singapore. It was sealed Feb. 4 and shipped three days later.

The approximately 12-week-old kitten has been checked by a veterinarian and has responded well to being fed.

It will be kept in quarantine for about three weeks to make sure it doesn’t pass any infectious disease to other animals.

ROCKVILLE, Md.—No matter what the cameras say, some drivers are refusing to pay dozens of $40 speeding fines. Who? Police officers.

In the last eight months of 2007, Montgomery County’s new speed cameras recorded 224 cases in which police vehicles were recorded traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit, according to department records.

Supervisors dismissed 76 of those citations after determining the officers were responding to calls or had valid reasons to break the speed limit.

But that left 148 who didn’t have that excuse, and about two-thirds of those citations haven’t been paid, said police Lt. Paul Starks.

The police union says officers shouldn’t pay because the citations are issued to the owner of a vehicle, in this case the county, and not to the driver.

Police Chief Thomas Manger doesn’t buy that argument.

“We are not above the law,” Manger said. “It is imperative that the police department hold itself to the same standards that we’re holding the public to.”

Manger said officers who continue to ignore citations might be disciplined.

SPRINGFIELD, Ore.—For guys who park in front of the TV during college basketball’s March Madness, the Oregon Urology Institute has a suggestion: Why not use that time to recover from a vasectomy?

“When March Madness approaches you need an excuse … to stay at home in front of the big screen,” the clinic’s radio ad says. “Get your vasectomy at Oregon Urology Institute the day before the tournament starts. It’s snip city.”

Institute Administrator Terry FitzPatrick said men need two to four days to recover from the procedure—but not all take the time.

He’s reserved a dozen appointment slots for March 19, the day before the first tipoffs of the NCAA Tournament, and another dozen for March 26, before the tournament’s second week.

He reported filling 15 slots by Thursday afternoon and expects to fill all 24.

The sports radio station broadcasting the clinic’s ads promises to send each patient a recovery kit of sports magazines, free pizza delivery and a bag of frozen peas.

Peas?

“The frozen peas are malleable enough that you can get them right in there and get the swelling down,” FitzPatrick said.

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio—No, that’s not a hallucination. That pear tree is wearing a sweater.

Wrapped around the trunk is a colorful, crazy-quilt skin made up of panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike. Good-luck charms cling to the yarn. Family photos, poems and jokes peek out of knitted pockets.

The art project in this southwest Ohio village, already known for its offbeat art, has become a conversation piece and even a photo op.

“What takes this to a different level is it is a community thing,” said Corrine Bayraktaroglu, an artist who helped start the “knitknot tree” project. “People are really, really enjoying it. They’re coming from towns to have their photograph taken with the tree. They’re adding stuff to the pockets.”

Knitters around the U.S. are dressing trees, street signs, benches, door handles and other objects.

Last month, residents of Columbus, Ind., knitted cozies for 33 ornamental pear trees that line the city’s main street. One tree, called the People Hugger, has knitted arms.

Knitted coverings are showing up on trees and doorknobs in Charleston, W.Va. In Houston, knitters have dressed up park benches, car antennas, telephone poles and beer bottles.

“It’s fascinating what’s going on in the knitting world,” Bayraktaroglu said. “Graffiti street art is going to a whole different realm. It’s gone beyond just painting on sides of buildings.”

Artist Carol Hummel is among the pioneers. She crocheted a cozy for a tree in front of City Hall in Cleveland Heights several years ago. It took her 500 hours and the use of a hydraulic lift to dress the upper branches.

The cozy has survived several winters and even a swarm of cicadas, which left their molted skins clinging to the material.

“There are a lot of copycats now,” Hummel said. “A lot of people are getting into putting things on the trees. That’s cool.”

In Yellow Springs, the first knitted panel—a gold piece with the words “Knitknot Tree” and a smiley face—went up in October. It wasn’t until early February that more panels began to be added.

“Then it just took off like crazy,” Bayraktaroglu said. “People were coming from out of town and adding their own knitting.”

Artist Nancy Mellon said people love to come up and touch the tree, and children like to check out what’s in the pockets.

“There was a man—while I was working on the tree—who walked by, and all he said was ‘Thank you,’” Mellon said.

Other residents in this village about 15 miles east of Dayton also seem to like the dressed-up tree.

“It looks like Yellow Springs; it’s unique, it’s colorful, unpredictable,” said Lynda Sirk. “It makes me smile. That’s what I like.”

The tree is vulnerable to the raised legs of passing pooches. Because of that, the panels of yarn don’t extend all the way to ground level.

As the panels spread up the trunk, the knitters had to follow, first standing on a chair, then a three-step ladder, a 6-foot ladder and finally an 8-foot ladder. They finally decided they had gone high enough after someone suggested scaffolding and village officials began to worry about someone falling.

“The fear factor has kicked in,” Mellon said.

The artists who started the project tentatively plan to remove the knitting on Arbor Day at the end of April and give away the pieces of yarn.

But Bayraktaroglu has some reservations about that.

“People get very attached,” she said, “and I think they’ll be mad at us if we cut it down.”

A Washington man apparently went way overboard to get out of work. Police say the man had his friend shoot him in the shoulder so that he wouldn’t have to go to work.

Daniel Kuch originally told police that he was the victim of a drive-by shooting while he was jogging on Thursday. Authorities though later said Kuch admitted that he asked a friend to shoot him so that he could get out of work and wouldn’t have to take a drug test.

Kuch is expected to be charged with false reporting and the friend who shot him has been arrested for investigation into reckless endangerment.

A campaign that calls for better etiquette from local policemen was launched in Beijing. Citizens, through the campaign, are calling for law enforcers to use words such as “good morning” and “please” upon pulling over a motorist.

According to reports, this pro-courtesy campaign also asks that policemen greet drivers with salutes and “etiquette words.”

Xinhua reported that Beijing asks that its law enforcers, upon beginning an inspection of a driver, start with the statements “Good Morning. You have violated the traffic rules. Your driving license please.” Also, they are also requested to their inspections with phrases of similar nature, such as “Please abide by traffic rules. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Police will be monitored on their interactions with motorists, and those who fail to comply with the campaign’s regulations are faced with possible termination.

Other regulations that have been enforced upon local law officials, according to UPI, include bans on smoking, eating, and conversing while on duty. The set of new rules started being introduced to the local community last year.

Average worker wastes almost one year of his or her working life puffing away on cigarettes, a new poll revealed.

Three 15-minute smoking breaks a day cost employers 195 working hours a year for each worker. That is equivalent to 8,677 hours in an average 44-year working lifetime or simply put, nearly a whole year smoking instead of working.

“The results will be annoying for employers - who are essentially paying people to puff away. They will irritate non-smokers who wouldn’t get away with disappearing for three 15-minute coffee breaks a day,” John Sewell, from onepoll.com, who released the poll results, has been quoted by local newspapers as saying.

The smoking ban in most offices and building did not help reduce the number of employees who smoke, with 69 percent continuing to light up a cigarette but only has to do it further away from their desks or cubicles.

The smoking ban, in fact, annoys 45 percent of the 6,000 people polled. They do not approve of being forced to smoke outside of the office, restaurants or even bars that have a no-smoking policy.

A map obtained by police from a convicted burglar led to the discovery of buried treasure near the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Los Angeles. The unearthed treasure was a collection of antique watches, necklaces, and diamond rings, including a canary diamond ring suspected to be worth $400,000.

Authorities Tuesday followed the directions on a map taken from Robert Caveda, who was imprisoned on December 18 for several charges including residential burglary. The map, police said, was hand-sketched, and had an “X” marking the area where the treasure was buried.

The loot was located in a plastic pipe underneath the 118 Freeway near White Oak Avenue, authorities said.

“My heart jumped out of my throat,” said Detective Bill Longacre, according to Mercury News.

“Why did he give it up? Why did he keep this stuff?” he said. “For him, it was the thrill of the hunt. It was a lifestyle he chose to excite himself.”

The map, according to authorities, was drawn by Caveda while sitting in his cell.

“I was shocked,” said attorney Mark Bledstein, upon sending a copy of the map to the police via fax. “I mean, to have a map like that, and it’s right there where the guy says it is?”

Police are planning to do an inventory of the unearthed valuables, and afterwards notify people who reported of burglaries during Caveda’s robbery stint, reported the Los Angeles News.

Previous discoveries of Caveda’s other stolen items were made at a North Hollywood storage facility, where police uncovered $2 million worth of stolen jewelry and art pieces. Police also found a particular fine art piece that was priced at about $10 million.