Russian serial killer says murder is like love

A Russian man accused of murdering 49 people asked a court on Tuesday to add another eleven victims to his tally, and told a jury when he first strangled a man it was like falling in love for the first time. Supermarket worker Alexander Pichushkin, 33, has been branded the 'chessboard murderer' by Russian newspapers because he hoped to put a coin on every square of a 64-place chessboard for each murder. "A first killing is like your first love. You never forget it," he said from a cage in the courtroom, after explaining how he started killing at age 18 with the murder of a classmate. Pichushkin said he had suggested to his classmate that they kill someone, but when his friend refused, "I sent him to heaven." He then smirked at the jury. "The closer a person is to you, and the better you know them, the more pleasurable it is to kill them," he said. "In all the cases I killed for only one reason. I killed in order to live, because when you kill, you want to live."

Shock burns cable thief beyond recognition

A thief in Germany was charred beyond recognition by a 10,000 volt electric shock when he tried to steal a live copper cable, authorities said Monday. Police in the western city of Duisburg found the 32-year-old man's blackened remains by a set of cable cutters and pile of non-live cables he had already stolen. Only because one of his hands survived incineration were officers able to identify the man as German of Kazakh origin. "His fingerprints were already logged on police files," a local police spokesman said. "The force of the shock was so great that the hand was severed from his body."

"Gift rage" lands worker in court?

A disgruntled Japanese worker smashed up his employer's office in a fit of pique after his boss ignored his gift of jelly desserts, a national paper said on Thursday. An Osaka court heard that the 31-year-old man, who worked for an online clothing sales company, had given the company president a box of jellies in the summer as a mark of gratitude after landing the job, the English-language Asahi Shimbun said. Many Japanese maintain a tradition of sending gifts to important business contacts in summer and winter. When the employee realized that his boss had left the box of jellies unopened under his desk, he smashed 22 computers in the office with a truncheon, the paper said. No one was injured in the incident. The man pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing business with force, the paper said. "I wish the company president had cared a little more," the paper quoted the employee's lawyer as saying. Prosecutors said the employer had been too busy to open the gift, the paper said.

Cops go out on a limb for ampu

A man whose amputated, embalmed leg was sold at a North Carolina auction will get the limb back over the objections of the buyer, who wanted to include it in a macabre, money-making Halloween display, police said on Thursday. The dispute over the leg John Wood lost in an airplane crash three years ago was apparently resolved when police decided the buyer, Shannon Whisnant, had given up ownership by calling authorities and asking them to take it away. "The simple fact is that he said he didn't want it," said Capt. Tracy Ledford of the Maiden Police Department, who chuckled his way through an interview about the case that has made for lively gossip in the small North Carolina town. "The guy don't have a leg to stand on," Ledford said. "He's not getting the leg back." Wood, 42, kept the embalmed leg because he wanted it to be cremated with him when he dies. He stored it in a small barbecue smoker in a Maiden storage unit, but failed to keep up the unit's rent, police said. The storage company auctioned the smoker on September 25 and Whisnant was the buyer. When he found the leg, he called police and said he "wanted to get rid of it," but later decided to make some money from it, Ledford said. "He wanted to show this thing at Halloween and charge money to see it," he said. Whisnant told local media he was willing to go to court to keep the leg and planned to charge admission to see it -- $3 for adults and $1 for children. "It's a hell of a conversation piece," he told the Greenville News. "I bought it. It's mine."

Bar gossip leads to nasty surprise for couple

A Czech couple who decided to take a DNA test to squash persistent pub gossip and prove that their 10-month-old baby was their own got a nasty surprise. The couple, from the southeastern town of Trebic, had some doubts about the child as her hair was blonde and they both had dark hair. Fellow drinkers' suspicions got on their nerves. But the test showed neither of the parents had the same DNA as the baby, Czech news agency CTK reported Wednesday, suggesting a mix-up at the hospital. Authorities were looking into the case.

Witchdoctor caught at poll tribunal

Nigerian police have arrested a witchdoctor employed by a politician to perform rituals at an election tribunal, local media reported Thursday. Officers caught Oluwole Abiodun Wednesday at the court building in southwestern Ondo state with charms and copies of the Bible and Koran in a black plastic bag. A pot containing a rabbit, seven eggs, cowrie shells and palm oil was found nearby, the state News Agency of Nigeria said. "Abiodun said that he was sent by one of the principal officers of the state House of Assembly to perform some rituals in the court premises," the agency said. Hundreds of cases are being heard across Nigeria to resolve disputes arising from April elections that were so heavily rigged they were deemed not credible by international observers. The witchdoctor's rituals would have been intended to ensure that the challenge to the election of the legislator failed.

Oktoberfest reveler stuck in chimney for 12 hours

German man who had been drinking heavily at Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival got stuck in a chimney for 12 hours while trying to climb into a friend's apartment, police said Friday. After finding his friend was not at home, the 27-year-old climbed on to the roof of a neighboring building at about 2 a.m. Thursday and headed for what he thought was a gap in the wall between the two houses. He found himself sliding almost 30 meters (98 feet) head first into a chimney, a spokesman for Munich police said. An 82-year-old janitor from the hotel next door eventually heard the man's calls for help and he was rescued at around 2 p.m. by fire brigade officers who knocked a hole into the side of the chimney to liberate him, the spokesman said. He had managed to turn around and had removed his clothes to try to help him squeeze back up. "Miraculously, he was only slightly injured in the fall, sustaining just grazes and bruising," police said. The man was taken by helicopter to the hospital, where he is being treated for hypothermia, they added.