Watercooler Stories

Female polygamist had multiple 'husbands'

ROSEVILLE, Mich., May 4 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman faces felony polygamy charges for swindling her three current husbands, and police say she may have had 15 husbands and ex-husbands.

Kyle McConnell is serving a 10-year sentence at the Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mich., for passing bad checks. The 46-year-old married her latest husband in September -- three months after they "met" in an Internet chat room, and after she got control of their joint finances.

"She told me she only had been married once, but I found out I was only one sucker in a bunch," Douglas Rice, of Clinton Township, told the Detroit News.

The newspaper said McConnell defrauded Rice of thousands of dollars.

A detective in the St. Clair County Sheriff's office admits law enforcement is not sure how many men McConnell has scammed, but investigators believe her victims may include more than a dozen others.

Macomb County prosecutor Therese Tobin said polygamy usually involves a man married to more than one woman. McConnell could be sentenced to four years in prison if convicted.

Debate rages over Cuba definition

HAVANA, May 4 (UPI) -- The Cuba entry in a popular online information site has become the subject of intense debate over its political bias, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Users have been quarreling over the wording of the Cuban passage on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that allows virtually unlimited editorial changes by users.

Disagreements include the depiction of the U.S. sanctions on the communist island and whether to include a section on its human rights record.

The definition, written by volunteers, has been through numerous revisions -- with 30 changes being made on April 27 alone -- the Herald reported.

'Mugabe Highway' not a hit in Malawi

LILONGWE, Malawi, May 4 (UPI) -- Malawian government plans to name a highway after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are meeting with stiff popular opposition.

Opposition parties and human rights groups say it would be a disgrace to honor Mugabe in such a way, considering the European Union has clamped a travel ban on him for his governance.

Ironically, the highway to be given his name Thursday was funded by the European Union, the BBC said.

The gesture was meant to honor Mugabe during a visit, for giving job opportunities to Malawians, the report said.

Mugabe has been in power since 1980. He instituted an urban demotion campaign in which 700,000 people lost their homes last year, the United Nations claims.

Chinese man buys fighter jet on eBay

BEIJING, May 4 (UPI) -- A Chinese man has purchased a retired Czech MiG-21f fighter plane from a U.S. seller on the eBay online auction site, the Beijing News reports.

Zhang Cheng said he won with his bid of $24,730, although he's not sure if the jet can be legally imported into China.

"I like to collect valuable items. I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane," Zhang said.

The Web site said the plane was in Lewiston, Idaho, and that it was last flown in 1995 and is in excellent condition, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, a Chinese company that bought a retired Soviet-built Minsk aircraft carrier to turn into a floating amusement park in Shenzhen has gone bankrupt, and has listed the vessel for sale, the Shanghai Daily reported.