Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Calling Mr. Al Kyder down under SYDNEY, Australia, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Passengers at Sydney's domestic air terminal were somewhat puzzled by a loudspeaker call for five passengers including two with names that sounded like "al-Qaida" and "terrorist." Advertisement The satirical TV show "The Chaser's War on Everything" had booked two E-tickets on a Virgin Blue flight from Sydney to Melbourne under fake names to test security arrangements. The show's producer picked up the tickets using the airline's self-service computer, which does not require photo identification. Then when he didn't show up at the gate, an announcement was made over the airport's loudspeaker system: "Good morning ladies and gentlemen; this is the final boarding call for passengers ... Al Kyder ... and Terry Wrist." An airline spokesman described the stunt, which aired Friday night, as "childish humor" and said security was never at risk. Advertisement Sept. 11 medal gets ripped by Daily News NEW YORK, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A New York newspaper is warning the public not to fall for what it calls "an offensive scheme" to peddle a Sept. 11 medal on the Web and late-night TV. In an editorial Friday, the New York Daily News said the National Collector's Mint of Port Chester, N.Y., is selling "a monstrosity called the 2001-2006 World Trade Center Commemorative" for $29.95. An analysis of the metal in the coin puts its value at about 32 cents, the report said. With that kind of a profit margin, the newspaper said, the company can afford to keep its promise to donate $5 to charity for each medal it sells. Two years ago the National Collector's Mint was fined $370,000 by a New York judge for selling a Freedom Tower medallion it said contained pure silver and was legal tender in the Northern Mariana Islands. It turned out the islands don't mint currency and the silver in the coin was worth less than 2 cents, the Daily News said. Poll highlights gender differences ATHENS, Ohio, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Researchers at Ohio University have found that nature is far more important than nurture when it comes to the differences between men and women. Advertisement A poll released by the Scripps Survey Research Center at the school shows that even today U.S. men and women follow patterns of behavior common to their gender, The Washington Times reports. The poll found that men are still chivalrous, protective of women and generally stubborn while women like to shop and will ask directions when they get lost. "One of the failures of second-wave feminism is the refusal to recognize that there are in fact differences between men and women," Michelle D. Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum, told the Times. One of the more unusual differences the Ohio University poll turned up involved eating: 60 percent of male respondents said they would eat food that had fallen on the floor while less than half the women surveyed said they would do so. LA murders follow old play plot LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Reminiscent of the play "Arsenic and Old Lace," two elderly Los Angeles women are accused of befriending lonely men and then killing them. Although they didn't use elderberry wine, Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt may have drugged their victims before running them over with their car, police believe, The Los Angeles Times reports. Advertisement The pair is accused of befriending, insuring and then killing Paul Vados, 73, and Kenneth McDavid, 50, after insuring them for $2.5 million. Police are also seeking three missing men, all described as transients, for whom the women allegedly tried to buy insurance policies. Golay and Rutterschmidt have been held without bail since May when federal authorities charged them with trying to defraud insurance companies. The federal charges were dropped Thursday when state murder charges were filed, the Times said. Los Angeles Police Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, chief investigator in the case, told the Times the women had fattened up their victims like Christmas turkeys.
