99 with added 9, please

Mr Whippy? No, I’m a speed cop in disguise
By Paul Chapman in
WellingtonLast Updated: 1:32am GMT 04/12/2006 

Police in New Zealand, frustrated by a rural “grapevine” that tips off drunken drivers whenever checkpoints are set up, are taking to the roads in ice cream vans playing Greensleeves. The ruse was admitted yesterday by officers in the rolling countryside of the central North Island. Senior Sergeant Nick Dobson said that the standard practice of using unmarked cars to catch offenders was no longer working because drivers recognised the models of the Holden or Ford vehicles that the police force used. The subterfuge came to light after a parent in Palmerston North complained that children had been upset when they approached an ice cream van to buy a cornet. “They were scared because there was a big, burly policeman in the back,” Senior Sgt Dobson said.

Daily Telegraph

Surprise visit

Germans resist march of the sweeps
By Bojan Pancevski in
Berlin, Sunday TelegraphLast Updated: 11:38pm GMT 02/12/2006 

They may bring good luck in Britain, but for some Germans chimney sweeps have become the harbingers of doom. A law dating back to the Nazi era entitles sweeps to force entry into houses and carry out an annual chimney check-up. “They don’t need a court warrant to break into your home. Not even police can do that,” said Harry Hollmann, 77, a retired print worker who has spent thousands of euros contesting their powers in the German courts. Last time the local sweep knocked on his door in the town of Oldenburg, in Lower Saxony, he ended up in handcuffs. “They broke in and officers had to handcuff me and press me against the wall as the sweep went about his business,” he said. “It’s outrageous. I have had gas heating from the 1990s, I don’t need my chimney swept at all.” The sweeps, who sport black top hats and elegant uniforms dating from the 17th century, can use a 1937 law – introduced by the then interior minister Heinrich Himmler – to enlist the police and fire brigade to force their way into people’s homes, if necessary by breaking down the door.

Daily Telegraph