The image is an impression of how the playwright may have appeared aged 14, the same age as thousands of school pupils studying his plays.

Metropolitan Police artist Cathy Charsley used her training in “age progression” to create the picture, but in reverse.

Using the police’s standard e-fit computer, she created an initial image and then compared famous portraits of the Bard to craft her final impression.

Details such as the curly hair and earring were also added to give the image the “spirit” of a young Shakespeare.

It was commissioned by the education department of Shakespeare’s Globe in London, which is using it to launch its winter season of events.

Ms Charsley said: “I have been trained in age progression for my job, so I worked in reverse, deciding how the face would be different if aged 14, and what features were important.

“Young Will is my personal interpretation, based on my knowledge of faces and how they change.”

Patrick Spottiswoode, director of Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “We asked Cathy Charsley to imagine what Shakespeare may have looked like at 14 – the very age that all students in England and Wales have to sit a Shakespeare exam.

In recently filed court papers, Elisa Kwon accuses her former beau Greg Calvino, 45, of reneg ing on a pledge he had made to not “use drugs, stay out late, frequent strippers or prosti tutes.” The 30-something Kwon insists Calvino had vowed that if he ever did any of those things again, she could cash a $100,000 check he had made out to her.

After Calvino’s allegedly debauched boys’ night out at a strip club in March 2005, that’s just what Kwon did.

But a fuming Calvino filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court in late July to get his money back – plus interest, legal fees and damages – claiming the whole thing is an extortion attempt.

Calvino claims Kwon had threatened to go to his bosses at RBC Capital Markets, where he was a stock trader at the time of the intemperate night out, and make up tales of drug use “with strippers and whores.” He claims he wrote the $100,000 check to protect his career and reputation, and that she cashed it for no apparent reason.

But Kwon, in a motion to dismiss filed on Sept. 20, said Calvino’s drug use and wild ways with women entitled her to the money. She said she cashed the check in November 2005, after he went out with fellow RBC traders to ogle the girls at Flashdancers and do cocaine that March.

What’s more, he failed a store-bought drug test of his urine, she claims.

In an affidavit, Kwon attached what she claims is the text of a long instant-message conversation she had with Calvino in which he appears to cop to doing drugs and visiting strip clubs and tells her to keep the cash.

After initially writing that he was “sorry I was irresponsible last night – but I didn’t do the bad stuff,” and that he was not “stupid enough to jeopardize our future,” Calvino explains he was only “drunk/bombed [on] Jack [Daniels],” according to the text transcript.

Kwon reminds him of the “$25 Rite-Aid” test – “it’s POSITIVE.”

Calvino then appears to blame one of his trading buddies: “He put it in my face.”

Later in the instant-message exchange, Calvino confesses to going to Flashdancers after a charity event with four colleagues, the text shows

An RBC spokesman did not immediately comment.

An apparently contrite Calvino later writes to Kwon, “A promise is a promise,” according to the text.

He also allegedly writes, “I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain,” and “If you want to keep my money it’s yours to start anew.”

Calvino, who has since moved to Thomas Weisel Partners, did not reply to calls or e-mail requesting comment. His lawyer also didn’t return calls.

Kwon did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment. Her lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, declined to comment.

Ante Djindjic, 29, from Zagreb, said: “I don’t remember what happened. One minute I was taking a leak and the next thing I knew I was in hospital.

“Doctors said the lightning went through my body and because I was wearing rubber boots it earthed itself through my penis.”

Chen Hui-fang, 33, was convicted eight years ago of armed burglary and internet fraud. She was given a term of 12 years in prison but failed to turn herself in to serve her sentence.

The court issued an arrest warrant for Chen, but she had gone into hiding, disguised as a man and using a forged identify, several newspapers and broadcaster reported.

Chen, who looks masculine, disguised herself so well that even her girlfriend did not know that “he” was a she.

To convince her girlfriend that she was man, Chen tied a fake penis – a condom filled with cotton – between her thighs, press reports said.

Over the years, Chen continued to commit crimes and was caught once, but police released her after questioning.

When she was caught again Monday, police realised that Chen was using a fake ID card and did not look like a man, because Chen had no Adam’s apple and had no hair on her upper lip.

Hungry Tracey Wenn, 45, screamed the slogan from the Quorn TV advert: “Eat my pork — feel my fork!”.

The gran then plunged a steak knife into partner Anthony Donkin’s leg.

Four-times married Anthony suffered a seven-inch wound and had to go to hospital.

Hull Crown Court heard the pair had been boozing at a pub, but dad-of-three Anthony, 56, got home early and tucked into the chops.

Twice-married Wenn, of Hull, later returned drunk, discovered he had eaten the meal and stabbed him.

She insisted it was a “joke” and only meant to “prod” him.

She said yesterday: “I’m sorry but you don’t just eat my pork chops.

“I made them with peas and carrots with onion gravy.”

Former builder Anthony said: “I won’t go near her pork chops ever again.”

Now, South Bay city commissioners are demanding answers after a raunchy video tape showing a male stripper performing at the party has surfaced. South Bay Parks and Recreation Director Charles Inman admits that he allowed the group to use the commission chambers after accidentally double-booking the shower and another event at another city facility.

A pile of debris, mixed with bricks, filled the center of the living room at 323 Monroe Ave. on Tuesday, created by firefighters in their early morning rescue attempt of a man who identified himself to WEHT-News25 as Alejandro Valencio.

After he was free from the chimney, Valencio was taken to a local hospital. But he later returned to the rental home, occupied by Connie Deweese.

A News25 television reporter asked Valencio why he went down the home’s chimney at 3:30 in the morning.

“Because I want to feel like Santa Claus,” he answered sarcastically. “I was just drunk — I live here; she’s my girlfriend.”

District Fire Chief Allen Bittner said the man apparently told firefighters and police he was trying to surprise his girlfriend.

Deweese said she had known the man for about seven or eight months, but told him to stay away and that she didn’t want anything to do with him.

“I’ve dated a lot of psychos in my life, but nobody like that,” Deweese said.

Firefighters requested assistance from the police because they said Deweese was blocking the fireplace, wanting to protect the bricks.

“I told them to leave him in the chimney and let him die,” she said.

Disorderly conduct charged

She received misdemeanor citations on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with a firefighter. Valencio was not charged in the incident.

Deweese said she received the citations after she realized firefighters were going to destroy the wall.

Friends staying with her called 911 when they realized somebody was in the chimney, she said.

After the rescue, she said she went back to bed and later awoke to find the man back at the home.

“I beat his (butt) and told him to get out,” she said.

She forced him out the front door, screaming and throwing beer bottles at him.

Zoe Comaish, 32, was trapped for two hours as boyfriend Stuart Fisher tried in vain to free her.

Eventually he rang 999, but the three cops who came round only managed to cut the chain — and could not get the cuffs off her wrists.

Sound engineer Stuart, 34, said: “They told us we’d have to go down to the fire station. Zoe was mortified.

“They were all laughing and wished us luck.”

But when the luckless couple arrived at their local station in Southampton, Hants, one watch was coming on duty and another was going off.

It meant there were 20 officers keen to help.

Saleswoman Zoe said: “I’ve never gone so red in my whole life.”

One said: “She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. The boys were arguing over who would use the bolt cutters. It took a few snips and she was free.”

Amazingly, Zoe has forgiven Stuart.

More than $53 million had been spent over the past decade trying to extinguish the Rujigou coal field fire, which had consumed about 1 million tons of high-quality anthracite coal annually, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The underground inferno was finally put out last month.

Officials had estimated the fire caused economic loss of $40 million and discharged 90,000 tons of hazardous substances into the air each year.

It’s not certain how the coal fire started but folklore has it that ill-treated miners set their mine on fire because of a beef with their boss.

The unidentified man was arrested last week at the Gongbei Customs, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. Police said the sandals attracted their attention, and a search of the man’s luggage turned up another pair just the like the one he was wearing.

A search of all four sandals led to the discovery of more than two kilograms of heroin hidden inside the heels, police said.

Practical jokers had struck at the home she shares with boyfriend David Devanna, bricking up and cementing the front door from the outside.

Mr Devanna’s friends carried out the handiwork to mark his 24th birthday – as a way of getting him back for his pranks.

As well as wallpapering the front window with a huge birthday message, his friends also set to work on his beloved Golf GTI.

They covered the inside of the car with balloons and string, then tightly wrapped strips of Cellophane around its doors so Mr Devanna could not get in.

The jokers sprayed it with foam and attached the body of a toy rabbit to its bonnet, with fake blood scattered around.

Posters of Mr Devanna, a self-employed mechanic, were put on lampposts throughout Sighthill View, where he lives.

The shock – and with the lack of transport – forced the birthday boy to call off jobs he had scheduled for that day.

The father-of-three said he suspected his friends would mark his birthday in some way.

He said: “My oldest daughter came running, saying: ‘We can’t get out the front door.’ I was half asleep at the time and didn’t know what she was talking about.

“I had to go out of the back door, then I saw my car had been done. I thought they’d do something, but I never expected my door to be bricked up. I take it that’s my birthday present.”

Mr Devanna added that he had his suspicions about who the main prankster was, and has pointed the finger at his friend Gregor Todd, whose car he “decorated” for his birthday.

Today the guess was proved correct when Mr Todd admitted that he was indeed the mastermind behind the practical joke.

The 22-year-old, from Balerno, said: “I might have had something to do with it.

“He got shaving foam and cling film and did my car on my birthday, so this is payback. I did it at 4.30am. I had an accomplice but I’m not saying who.

“I thought he might take it a bit to heart, but he has not at all. It’s brilliant.”

But Mr Devanna is already planning his friend’s next birthday surprise. He said: “I will need to go one better next time.”

Miss Bain said that although she was shocked when she couldn’t leave the house, she found the prank “hilarious”.

She said: “His friends had been talking about doing something, but I didn’t think they would do anything like this.

“He loves that car, this is actually the longest it has sat in the drive.”

The couple’s neighbour Paul Stokes – who put up posters of Mr Devanna but denied any further involvement – said: “This is the most ridiculous prank I have ever seen in my life.

“Everybody walking past has stopped and stared, and they all think it’s hilarious.

Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.

Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.

“The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die,” the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.

“In the end, it became obvious that screws were being sold for much less than they usually cost,” said a spokesman for police in the southern city of Wuerzburg.

Over two years, the 33-year-old assembly plant worker smuggled between 2,000 and 7,000 screws out of work each night, and auctioned them on an Internet site, police said. The scheme cost his firm around 110,000 euros ($156,000).

After a 6,000-mile journey that has meteorologists baffled, the shrivelled remains were found by Xie Yufei in a park in Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis 75 miles north of Hong Kong. The latex balloon had been released on July 15 by Alice Maines, 4, and was one of 100 launched in a balloon race at Flixton Junior School’s annual summer fair. Each one of the balloons, sold for £1, carried a numbered ticket promising the finder a prize: a visit to Chester Zoo.

Sue Wood, secretary of the school’s parent teacher association, said: “We were struggling to launch them for most of the day. At 3pm there was a five-minute window where it wasn’t raining, so we all ran outside, did a countdown and launched them together.”

Alice, whose ticket was number 90, explained that she had limited experience in balloon races: “I just let go.” Her father, Andrew, an NHS manager said: “It didn’t seem to get very far. I thought, it won’t even make the next street.”

In the weeks that followed, balloons were posted back to the school, mostly from suburbs a few miles west of Manchester, although a couple made it to Liverpool.

Then on September 5, the second day of the new term, a large white envelope arrived in the headmaster’s office. The stamp and postmark were Chinese.

“I picked up this balloon when my friends and I were playing on August 25,” wrote the sender, Mr Xie. “I am in China, so I think it has travelled the furthest. Left is my picture. I am happy to pick it up.”

Speaking from his home in Guangzhou last night, Mr Xie, 26, whose job involves designing air conditioning units, said: “We were playing basketball in a park. I saw it by the edge of the court. It was shrunk, and there was an address attached.” Shrunk though it was, the balloon had not burst.

Scott D. Clark, a guest at the Embassy Suites Hotel in St. Paul, cornered the duck early Saturday morning, grabbed the bird and ripped its head from its body while a hotel security guard and others watched, police said.

Clark then turned to onlookers and said: “I’m hungry. I’m gonna eat it,” St. Paul police Sgt. John Wuorinen said.

“He was allegedly drunk,” Wuorinen said. Clark, 26, of Denver, was detained by hotel security guards until police came to arrest him.

He remained jailed Sunday on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and was scheduled to appear in court Monday to be charged.

A phone message left for Clark at the jail was not returned Sunday.

If convicted, he could face up to two years in prison and a $5,000 (¤3,559) fine, said Tim Shields, general counsel with the Minnesota Federated Humane Societies.

Shields said the incident was “unconscionable,” and that having live ducks in a hotel lobby puts them at risk of being stepped on or run over by suitcases.

“I think Embassy Suites needs to take another look at this and review how they keep ducks safe, or use fish like most hotels would use,” Shields said.

The victim claims the suspects used hypnosis to trick him into handing over more than a $1,000.

Surveillance video shows the clerk, Yogi Patel, 29, talking with the two men at the Marlborough County Convenience Store.

Patel, who owns the business, said the suspects claimed to be Hindu priests who could read his mind.

But police aren’t laughing.

The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.

Police say William Russell Redfern, who has won recognition for drawings he does with his feet, head-butted and kicked Charles Keith Teer during a Sept. 17 fight over a woman. Teer complained of dizziness and collapsed.

A medical examiner determined last week that Teer likely died of a heart attack.

Police Chief Roy Whitehead said investigators decided against felony charges but felt Redfern should be punished for the fight.

Redfern, who was born with no right arm and a stump below his left shoulder, turned himself in Tuesday on a charge of affray. He was released Wednesday on $1,213 bond, a jail official said.

The misdemeanor charge is likely the only legal action Redfern will face, Whitehead said.

“We reviewed (the case), talked with everyone involved and felt like that was an appropriate charge,” he said.

Claw marks on the concrete railing of the Rainbow Bridge show where the bruin’s ordeal began, said Dave Baker of the Truckee BEAR League, who was the first to arrive on the scene Sept. 15.

It was walking across the span on Highway 40 near Donner Summit in the Sierra Nevada when at least two oncoming cars spooked it, causing it to jump over the railing.

At one point it was dangling over the edge of the 80-foot-high bridge, but it caught a ledge and pulled itself onto a concrete girder beneath the bridge.

Officials initially decided nothing could be done, but when they returned the next morning and found it sleeping on the ledge, they decided to take action.

Volunteers strung the net beneath the bridge and an animal control officer shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart.

After the bear lost consciousness, volunteers used a pole to push it into the net, then lowered the bear onto the floor of the granite-strewn ravine as more than 100 spectators cheered.

The groggy bear was steered away from the crowds and back into the wilderness.

Fond du Lac County Executive Allen Buechel said someone has been repeatedly stealing toilet paper from the men’s public bathrooms at the Fond du Lac City County Government Center since June.

Buechel suspects the person comes in once or twice a week around midday and gets about six rolls a week from dispensers. Some rolls weren’t even full, he said.

The thefts haven’t been a big loss.

“We don’t buy the best toilet paper,” Buechel said.

He expects the thief to get caught. “Someone is going to walk in on him when he’s doing it and we’ll catch him,” he said.

Courthouse officials are on the lookout for suspicious activity.

Jacky Cheung has been placed on an employment blacklist after a series of protests about his treatment of hired helps.

He has been nicknamed “The Terminator” for his ruthless approach, with suggestions Cheung has fired 60 maids in all.

Cheung and his wife, former actress May Lo, have now been placed on a “blacklist of sub-standard employers” maintained by the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong.

Joel Blas, an assistant national officer at the Philippines consulate, said the couple’s hiring ban would last a year.

The blacklisting comes after a former Filipino helper working under Cheung, Preslyn-saga Catacutan, was controversially jailed last year for stealing photographs and a letter from the star.

She claimed to be “the 60th helper” to have been sacked by Cheung in total.

The frog has a yellow colour to its skin but it is clear enough to see through, allowing researchers to observe its organs and blood vessels.

The lead researcher in Japan, Professor Masayuki Sumida, said it is possible to observe how organs grow and how cancer develops.

The frog was bred from rare mutants of the Japanese brown frog using artificial insemination and Professor Sumida said it is the world’s first see through four-legged animal.

Campaigners wanted the chimp, named Matthew Hiasl Pan, to have the status of a ‘person’ so a guardian can be appointed to care for him and funds raised as the shelter he is currently in may close.

Donors have offered to help support the chimp but under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal gifts.

The Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories could set up a foundation to collect money for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they say that only personhood will give him the basic rights he needs to ensure he isn’t sold to someone outside Austria, where he’s now protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case last week, ruling that the group had no legal standing to argue on the chimp’s behalf.

The court said only a guardian could appeal, but the group argues that does not apply in this case as Pan hasn’t gained a guardian.

Now the campaigners have vowed to take their challenge to Austria’s Supreme Court.

Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is “a being with interests” and said: “It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can.”

He added that chimps share 99.5 percent of genes with humans. However, the Association points out that it’s not trying to get Pan declared a human, but rather a person, which would give him some kind of legal status.

A hearing date for the Supreme Court appeal was not immediately set.

The legal tussle began in February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy protection.

Chimpanzees Jonnie and Coco broke out of their compound Friday morning at the Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, 55 kilometres north of London. The Zoological Society of London, which runs the zoo, said Coco was recaptured, but Jonnie could not immediately be caught and had to be killed.

“It’s just standard procedure, if the animal cannot be quickly and safely recaptured it will be shot,” spokeswoman Alice Henchley said.

Avista Adventist Hospital, north of Denver, has even printed up blizzard-baby T-shirts for newborns. Ricky Lee Romero, born Tuesday, has one.

Blizzards hit the Denver area Dec. 21 and Dec. 29, and snow covered the ground for 61 straight days. Ricky Lee’s dad, Randy Romero, said he had came home one night after a long shift as a Denver snowplow mechanic to find that his partner, Dayna Wilson, had made dinner and put her two daughters to bed.

“We just cuddled up to get warm, and this happened,” Romero said.

Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, north of Denver, said its maternity ward has been busy.

“Apparently, not everybody was shoveling snow,” said David Hamm, hospital chief executive.

Obstetrician Steve Grover, who delivers babies at Sky Ridge Medical Center south of Denver, said the hospital expects an increase in deliveries in October.

“The snow stayed on the ground throughout December, January and into February. My theory is that the cabin fever didn’t set in until a little bit later,” he said.

Even with all the anecdotal evidence, no firm numbers were available, and at least one hospital, Boulder Community, said it is on pace for a normal month.

People have been dropping the furry creatures on roadways, in parks and near school grounds on Long Island’s South Shore with increasing regularity in recent months, animal control experts said.

Earlier this month, a man was seen dumping 20 rabbits in a box at a train station and driving away, said Nancy Schreiber, a Long Island Rabbit Rescue Group volunteer.

”It sounds like someone is raising rabbits and trying to get out of the business,” said Gerry McBride, who handles criminal complaints for the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The SPCA is trying to figure out who is responsible for dumping the cuddly critters, and the Rabbit Rescue Group is offering a $5,000 reward.

The rabbits often can’t fend for themselves in the wild and end up starving to death or being killed by raccoons or diseases.

Salcedo said he went to police because he was scared when he found the four plastic bags filled with $20 and $100 bills in July. He had heard that someone had been killed in his house years earlier.

“We didn’t know if the murderer knew about the money,” Salcedo said. “We decided the best course of action was to let someone know.”

The money had been stuffed into a strongbox that was hidden in a cavity cut in the insulation.

Similar bundles of cash were found hidden in the home after Scott Quinn, a 37-year-old bail bondsman and gun dealer, was found stabbed to death in 2003. Police returned that money to the victim’s estranged wife, Lana Quinn, the widow’s lawyer Michael Herring said.

Scott Quinn kept large amounts of cash because he frequently attended gun shows and made cash purchases as part of his business, Herring said.

He also said Salcedo had no claim to the money, but that his client would pay an undisclosed finder’s fee.

Salcedo’s attorney Eric Frommer insisted there was no way to prove the money belonged to Lana Quinn. Officials in Sanford, about 20 miles northeast of Orlando, said they will let the courts determine possession.

This Chicago suburb has installed second stop signs beneath the regular ones at 50 intersections with messages, including “WHOAAA” or “Stop … and smell the roses.”

“I thought it might make people smile and take notice,” Mayor Dave Heilmann said as he launched the campaign Friday. “You’ve got people on their cell phones, their BlackBerries and iPods while driving. Those are all distractions. Hopefully, when they see a sign they’re not expecting it might make them stop.”

The new signs are red octagons, just like the real stop signs, but instead of just “Stop” they say “Stop … right there pilgrim” and “Stop … in the naame of love.” Naame? Think of the drawn-out pronunciation in the hit by the Supremes.

As many as 70,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign to reduce HIV and AIDS were returned this week by community groups. Another 100,000 condoms were returned in early September because of complaints their paper packaging can be easily damaged and could make the condoms ineffective.

City health officials agreed that complaints about the packaging were damaging to their citywide distribution campaign, but they have insisted the condoms were safe. They said this week they will distribute brand-name substitutes.

Since the problems were publicized, the city’s condom manufacturer offered to replace all remaining supplies with Trojan, Lifestyles and other products found on drugstore shelves.