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To: The Philosopher who wrote (7130)	9/30/1998 11:36:00 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 62549

Harrassed tax officials ask dead to pay up dailynews.yahoo.com Wednesday September 30 10:56 AM EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian tax officials have been known to try some unorthodox methods to try to boost paltry fiscal revenues but they had to admit Wednesday that asking the dead to pay up was a mistake. Tax inspectors in Onega, a town in Russia's Far North, put several dozen dead people on the list to pay land taxes, Olga Semyonycheva a spokeswoman for the regional tax inspectorate, said by telephone. ''A computer was stolen about two years ago and the data was lost, so they took data from the local registration office and there was a mix-up,'' she said. ''People rang, saying that the people on the invoices died long ago.'' Semyonycheva said she had apologized to relatives of all the dead people on behalf of the tax inspectorate, which like others across the vast expanses of Russia, is under huge pressure to squeeze more tax out of the citizenry. The incident had been dubbed locally ''Dead Souls,'' after the satire by 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol about a man who bought up dead serfs to increase his social standing by giving the impression on paper he was in charge of more people. Russian tax police have resorted to armed raids on firms and private homes to try to fill a fiscal gap which has helped push the country toward financial collapse. But their tough methods have brought little overall success.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (7130)	9/30/1998 11:39:00 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 62549

Religious statue made into pipe dailynews.yahoo.com Wednesday September 30 10:55 AM EDT EASTPORT, N.Y. (Reuters) - A suburban New York man was arrested Tuesday on charges of possessing a stolen statue of the infant Jesus that had been turned into a marijuana pipe. The statue was stolen two years ago but returned anonymously in recent months to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island in Eastport, N.Y., said Suffolk County, N.Y. police. An investigation led to the arrest of 18-year-old Timothy Rhatigan of Eastport, police said. The statue's stomach and head had been hollowed out, and it had been converted into a type of marijuana pipe known as a bong, police said. Rhatigan was charged with criminal possession of stolen property. Police said they were still searching for other items missing from the church, including another statue of Jesus, seven statues of sheep stolen in May and a statue of Joseph and a crib stolen from a Nativity scene in June. Thieves also have broken into the shrine's donation canisters, and the site's cement benches have been broken. Police also said they have added a number of new security measures at the shrine. Further arrests are expected, they said.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (7130)	9/30/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 62549

Woman sleeps with dead husband for 8 days dailynews.yahoo.com Wednesday September 30 10:51 AM EDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Margarita Sanchez's husband didn't speak to her for eight days. She thought he was angry, but he wasn't. He was dead. Cayetano Sanchez, 83, died in bed more than a week ago, but his wife slept next to him every night for eight days before she realized it, the Mexican government news agency Notimex reported on Tuesday, citing police sources. State Judicial Police in the town of Huatusco, in the gulf coastal state of Veracruz, reported finding Sanchez's partially decomposed body with the bed covers up to his neck, Notimex said. ''The wife told authorities her husband did not speak to her for eight days even though she tried to speak to him without realizing he was dead,'' Notimex said. A preliminary investigation suggested Sanchez may have died of alcohol poisoning, Notimex said. Margarita Sanchez was to be examined by mental health specialists.