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SYDNEY (UPI) – An Australian drug trial was aborted after three months when it was discovered that jurors were playing Sudoku in the jury box.

Judge Peter Zahra of District Court in Sydney released the jury after the forewoman admitted that she and four other jurors had spent a large amount of their time during the trial playing the popular game, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Tuesday.

Defense lawyers Adam Morison and Michael Coroneos filed to have the jury discharged after the two men accused in the trial said they saw the jury forewoman playing the game during one of the defendants’ testimony. The forewoman admitted to spending about half of her time in the jury box playing the game.

Morison said it was “extraordinary that 105 witnesses, including 20 police, had been in the witness box and not seen what was happening.”

Zahra verbally reprimanded the Sudoku players, but provincial laws do not allow for the prosecution of inattentive jurors.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

SHAWNEE, Kan. (UPI) — A Shawnee, Kan., man said he evaded serious injury when a rogue nail fired from a nail gun embedded itself in his skull.

George Chandler said he was building a lattice with a friend when the nail gun hose became tangled and fired off a nail, KCTV, Kansas City, Mo., reported Tuesday.

Chandler said he and his friend initially did not know where the nail had landed, but soon found the 2 and a half inch piece of hardware had gone into his skull on the top of his head.

“It was just like a maybe like a sting, bite or something, you know,” Chandler said.

He said there was no blood around the wound and he was alert when an ambulance arrived and took him to a hospital. He said a doctor requested a very special instrument for his treatment.

“‘Does anybody have a hammer, a claw hammer.’ I thought he was teasing at first, but then he says, ‘No. It went in like that. We can pull it out like that,’” Chandler said.

Doctors told Chandler’s family that he could have faced paralysis or serious injuries to his eyesight or ability to speak if the nail had entered his skull a fraction of an inch lower.

“Well I feel very lucky, very, very lucky,” Chandler said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

the Trons – self playing robot band

A woman was trying hard to get the catsup to come out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her four-year old daughter to answer the phone.

“It’s the minister, Mommy,” the child said to her mother.

Then she added, “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.”

OURAY, Colo. (UPI) — Guests at a hotel in Ouray, Colo., said they were surprised when a “cute, little cinnamon bear” walked onto hotel grounds and got into the pool with them.

Ryan Hein, general manager of the Best Western Twin Peaks Motel in Ouray, said guests were lounging Thursday night when the “cute, little cinnamon bear walked into our pool area and decided to take a dip,” the Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel reported.

“He must have needed his muscles soothed,” Hein joked. “He just jumped in for a little bit, and then crawled his way out.”

Hein said it is not unusual for bears to wander onto the hotel’s property because it borders wilderness.

“The bears seem not to be aggressive, but you never know. We’re doing what we can to keep our guests safe,” Hein said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

ST. PETERSBURG – As some of the nation’s top financial minds meet today, fears of inflation and a recession continue to rise.

Meanwhile, consumers are dealing with a new problem – paying more for smaller portions.

It is costing companies more money to make and deliver goods today. So manufacturers have two choices: raise prices or put less product in packages.

“We just have to eat a little less, I guess you could say, of the item,’ said Clifton Patrick while shopping in Hillsborough County. “I have to cut back on my ice cream. That’s gone from a half-gallon to 1-and-three quarters pint, so I just eat a little less.”

Companies like Edy’s and Kellogg’s are all downsizing their products.

When it comes to Edy’s ice cream, larger size containers are being phased out for smaller ones. And the smaller containers are costing the same as the larger ones.

And it’s happening all across store shelves.

This month, Kellogg’s started shipping new, smaller cereal boxes for five different brands – with no price change. Company leaders said the move was to “offset commodity costs for ingredients and energy.’

University of South Florida marketing professor James Stock said the prices likely won’t come down due to rising oil prices and transportation costs.

“If we don’t see any kind of abatement in the transportation costs, there’s going to be a point in time where price increases are just going to be more common place,’ Stock said. “Because companies cannot absorb the price increases with the kind of small margins that many of them still have.”

Companies have also said part of the transition is an increasing effort to go green, having less packaging to recycle. And the floods in the midwest are also being blamed as millions of acres of crops like corn have been flooded.

Higher prices for ethanol, grain products, cereals and other agricultural products have all pushed groceries higher, officials said.

Stock said consumers are going to have to shop smarter and look at the “cost per unit” price on packages instead of the overall price.

Story Provided by Baynews9.com