Fruitful gesture

Curses, foiled again
• Moments after robbing a tourist of her gold chain on a street in Miami Beach, Fla., the gunman returned to the scene in his Mercedes and confronted the victim about the poor quality of the jewelry, complaining it was fake. The victim flagged down police and pointed out Daniel Sion Palmer, 26. “That was a brazen move,” Det. Ernesto Rodriguez said, “and because of that, he was able to be apprehended.” (Miami’s WTVJ-TV)

• A suspect fled after fatally shooting a man outside a convenience store in Fairfield, Ala., but his car broke down. He abandoned the vehicle, which police found and towed to the impound lot. The next day, Willie Lee Brown, 29, showed up at the police station to retrieve his car. Police Chief Leon Davis said that Brown, who was wearing the same clothes as the suspect in surveillance photos, was immediately recognized and arrested. (AL.com)

Fruitful gesture
• Hoping for a new home in Venezuela’s Anzoategui state, Marleni Olivo, 54, wrote her name and phone number on a mango and threw it at visiting President Nicolas Maduro, hitting him in the head. Maduro kept the mango and later announced that he had approved a new apartment for Olivo. “Tomorrow, no later than the day after tomorrow, we will give it to you,” he promised. Olivo later explained that she wanted to write her request on a note but lacked paper: “What I had was a mango that I was about to eat because I was hungry.” (CNN)

Do the math
• Claiming racial bias in undergraduate admissions, a coalition of Asian-American groups filed a federal discrimination complaint against Harvard University. They pointed out that Asian-Americans represent 5.6 percent of the U.S. population but constitute only 21 percent of Harvard’s incoming freshman class (up from 17.7 in 2006). (Bloomberg News)

Mind like an ostrich
• After Marsha Yumi Perry, 36, struck a 5-year-old boy with her pickup truck in Washougal, Ore., she left the injured victim at the scene and then hid from police by crawling into a shallow hole and covering herself with dirt. A police dog tracking her scent indicated her location, and the handler warned that he was about to unleash the dog. “The ground moved, and she sat up,” police Sgt. Geoff Reijonen said. (Portland’s The Oregonian)

When guns are outlawed
• Authorities charged John Connolly, 52, with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon at a medical clinic in Englewood, Fla., after they said he disputed a pain-medication prescription and began choking a physician’s assistant with a stethoscope. (Sarasota’s WWSB-TV)

Halalujah
• Muslims may now use toilet paper, according to a new Islamic fatwa by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs. It noted that although toilet paper is acceptable for hygiene, water remains preferable. Men and women still aren’t supposed to stand while relieving themselves but should squat or sit. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

• A sex shop that caters to Muslims is opening in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Abdelaziz Aouragh, owner of the Halal Sex Shop, said the store targets married couples looking to enhance their sex lives. Aouragh pointed out that its 18 halal-observant sex toys do “not include inflatable dolls.” (International Business Times)

High-jump challenge
• Having failed to stop intruders from climbing the fence surrounding the White House, the Secret Service is adding a second layer of steel spikes to the existing iron picket fence tops. The spikes will measure 7.25 inches tall, with a half-inch steel pencil point at the top, protruding outward multiple inches, to create an acute angle. The measure is only temporary, according to National Parks Service official Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, who said the goal is to have a completely new fence built by fall 2016. (CNN)

Problem solved
• Female lifeguards at China’s most dangerous rapids, in Henan province, have been fitted with cameras to discourage men from deliberately throwing themselves into the water so that they can grope their rescuers. Intended to identify sex-pest swimmers, the waterproof cameras are attached to the women’s helmets and legs, waists and chests, and decoratively covered by leaves and flowers. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Ex post facto follies
• An Australian man, seeking to reduce the amount owed his wife in divorce proceedings, disputed her claim that their marriage ended in 2011. He insisted instead that it ended in 1999 but, for the purposes of dividing their joint assets, that his affection for her ended in 1974, when he discovered she had “deformed” nipples. That was two years after their wedding, the man told Federal Circuit Court, but it took that long before he saw her undressed. “If I had seen them before, I would not have married her,” he said. Even though he wanted out of the marriage at that point, they subsequently had three children and stayed together for decades. Judge Warwick Neville chided the husband for his “very cavalier, if not a misleading and remarkably nonchalant, bordering on an immaturely irresponsible, approach… to the maritial relationship,” and said the man was “nit-picking” to suit his own case. He ruled that the marriage ended in 2011. (Australia’s Canberra Times)

Second-Amendment thrills
• The conservative group ForAmerica invited key contributors to donate $50,000 to spend a “historic weekend” at an exclusive resort in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and shoot machine guns with Robert O’Neill, billed as the Navy SEAL “who shot Osama bin Laden.” When critics condemned the promotion’s portrayal of O’Neill, ForAmerica’s founder, Brent Bozell, apologized, explaining that his team, “got a little ahead of itself” in issuing the invitation. He regretted describing O’Neill “in a way that is inconsistent with the high standards he applies when he characterizes the service of Navy SEALS” and added, “There will be no machine guns involved; this is strictly a sport shooting event.” (The Washington Post)

Drinking-class hero
• A British immigration court overturned a deportation order for a foreign criminal because he is an alcoholic. The 53-year-old man, who came to Britain from Libya in 1981 and has been convicted of 78 assorted offenses, appealed on the grounds that deporting him would violate his human rights because he would face physical punishment and imprisonment in his homeland for his uncontrollable drinking. The court noted that his many, unspecified offenses were committed “largely and possibly exclusively as a consequence of his alcoholism” but Upper Tribunal Judge Jonathan Perkins said deportation would deprive him of his “right to family life” in Britain, enabling him to continue his alcohol-fueled criminal behavior. (Britain’s The Telegraph)

Compiled from mainstream news sources by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.