Trapped drunk driver opens another beer as awaits rescue

AUCKLAND (Reuters) - A drunk driver trapped after overturning his car
cracked open another can of beer while he waited for emergency crews to rescue him, a New Zealand court was told.
Oddly enough Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, pleaded guilty to careless driving and drunken driving after being nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit in a
district court in the city of Palmerston North, the Dominion Post newspaper
reported on Wednesday.
Police found Sneddon, a former baker, trapped in his overturned Ford Laser on June 1, drinking a can of beer after he failed to take a corner properly and crashed through a wooden barrier, flipping his vehicle.
Defense lawyer Peter Young said that when Sneddon found he could not open the doors, "he had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer."
When asked by police how much he had consumed, Sneddon replied: "Plenty, I've been drinking for four days straight."
Sneddon, who is estranged from his wife, told the Wellington- based newspaper that he went on a drinking binge after losing his job at a bakery on the same day that he heard his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Judge Gregory Ross fined him NZ$1,100 (US$780) and disqualified him from
driving for 10 months. It was his first offence.


France guillotines Bastille Day party to save cash

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy has axed the traditional lavish Bastille Day garden party in the grounds of his Elysee Palace residence as a symbolic savings measure, parliamentary sources said on Wednesday.
The decision, to be announced officially next week with other cost cuts, comes as Paris is under pressure from the European Union and credit ratings agencies to slash its budget deficit, set to reach 8 percent of national output this year.
"For economy reasons in a period of austerity, the garden party won't take place this year," a lawmaker from the ruling UMP party said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Several thousand people are usually invited to the July 14 national day reception, which follows a military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue showcasing elite units, international military cooperation and a fly-past by fighter jets.
The military parade, marking the anniversary of the 1789 storming of the Bastille, a notorious Paris prison, during the French Revolution, is expected to go ahead.
Socialist lawmaker Rene Dosiere revealed that last year's garden party cost 732,826 euros ($983,200) -- roughly 100 euros per guest --- including more than 300,000 euros for food, 43,000 euros for champagne and wine, 296,000 euros for marquees and 80,000 euros to clean up after the guests had left.
The Court of Auditors, an independent public spending watchdog, has criticized the steep rise in travel and entertainment spending under Sarkozy.
The president has steadfastly refused to use the term "austerity" or to allow ministers to do so. But Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced on June 12 that the government would have to reduce the deficit by 100 billion euros in the next three years, almost half of it by cutting public spending.
Previous presidents used the garden party to give the last big televised interview before the summer break, often setting a policy agenda for the rest of the year.
Sarkozy broke with that tradition on taking office in 2007 and has used the event to promote ethnic diversity by inviting young people from high-rise suburbs to rub shoulders with the Parisian business and political elite.

Cops: Woman falls out window, lands on car, sleeps

LAKEMOOR, Ill. – Police said a 30-year-old woman apparently fell out of a third-story window, landed on her parked car, and then walked into a neighbor's house, where she fell asleep on a couch for two hours.Lakemoor Police Chief Mike Marchese said family members believe the woman woke up before dawn Thursday and fell through the screen while opening a third-floor window.
Marchese said the woman bounced off the hood of her car, walked through a neighbor's open garage door and went into the house.
The neighbor found her asleep two hours later and called 911.
The woman, whom police have not identified, was taken by ambulance to Centegra Hospital-McHenry. Marchese said she was not suffering from any life-threatening injuries, but he did not know her condition.