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Suspect stuck after impaling feet

DURBAN , South Africa, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Police in South Africa said a suspected thief spent hours clinging to a rail after he impaled both his feet on a fence during an attempted getaway.

Authorities said Mthandani Nqetho impaled his feet on the fence's steel spikes while fleeing from guards in the city of Durban Friday night and he was not found until churchgoers spotted him the next morning, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Nqetho was able to free one of his feet on his own, but the other remained impaled until the following morning, when bystanders phoned rescue services.

Captain Greg Bevan said the suspect's wrists were swollen from hanging onto the rail for several hours.

"People in the crowd gave him a cigarette and grapes until the rescue services arrived," he said.

Police spokesman Michael Reed said Nqetho has been charged with robbery and is being guarded at the hospital. He said Nqetho will go before a magistrate as soon as he is healthy enough to walk -- which police estimated at about a week.

Wis. village Web site hacked

MERTON, Wis., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The Web site operated by the Village of Merton, Wis., was targeted by a hacker who replaced the home page with obscene words and images.

The site, which usually lists emergency phone numbers, recycling facts and other information relevant to residents, was hacked and replaced by a page that included obscenities in large letters and a large drawing of an offensive hand gesture, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Tuesday.

The rest of the page was filled with misspelled and indecipherable words, but among the babble was the name Mr. Elgaarh, a moniker used by a well-known Egyptian hacker. The word "Egyptghost" was also found on the page, the Journal-Sentinel said.

Julie Ofori-Mattmuller, village deputy clerk and treasurer, said she contacted resident and village webmaster Sandra Levins, who took the page offline until the hacking could be corrected Monday afternoon.

"We've had no controversial issues here; I don't know why anyone would want to do this," Ofori-Mattmuller said. "Snowplowing is the biggest issue we usually have. We're a quiet little community."

Man bites off chunk of prostitute's ear

SHORELINE, Wash., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Sheriff's officials in King County, Wash., said a man bit off part of a prostitute's ear when he thought she was trying to skip out before completing business.

The King County Sheriff's Office said the 54-year-old Shoreline, Wash., man invited the prostitute to his home after reading her ad on Web site Craigslist, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said the man paid the woman for sex and thought she was trying to leave without doing the deed when she walked toward the door of his home to find better cell phone reception.

The man allegedly attacked the prostitute, and during the tussle he bit off a quarter-sized piece of her ear, authorities said.

Doctors at Harborview Medical Center said they were unsure whether the piece of ear, which authorities retrieved from the man's garbage can during his arrest, could be reattached.

Mayor uses magazine as ID at airport

CHARLESTON, W.Va., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The mayor of Charleston, W.Va., used a photo in a magazine as a form of identification when a California airport would not accept his expired driver's license.

Mayor Danny Jones said his expired license was enough to board a plane at Yeager Airport, but officials at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, would not accept the document as valid ID, the Charleston Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

"They said they weren't going to accept it," Jones said. "They stopped me right in line and brought over a superior to look through my bags."

Jones said he spoke to authorities for about 30 minutes before he remembered that he was carrying a copy of Charleston Magazine, a publication aimed at promoting tourism in the city.

The magazine contained a picture of Jones accompanying an article he authored.

"The picture is what did it," Jones said. "They knew then that I was the mayor of Charleston, West Virginia."

Jones said he immediately obtained a new driver's license when he returned home.