SALZBURG, Austria (AP) – Prosecutors say a former fingernail stylist put his hands under a passing train, severing a thumb and two fingers, to collect on an insurance policy.

The 35-year-old, whose name was withheld because of Austrian privacy laws, was charged with insurance fraud.

The suspect told police he was riding his bicycle in November 2003 when he lost control and rolled down an embankment. He said he rolled onto the tracks just as a train was passing by, losing a thumb on one hand and an index finger and a pinky on the other.

Insurance investigators became suspicious after discovering the man had taken out a $1.17 million policy a few months earlier.

Attorney Karl Wampl said it was outlandish that his client would intentionally mutilate himself on the tracks, contending he could have used a power saw to cut off his fingers rather than risk death by faking a train accident.

The suspect has said he had accumulated about $175,000 in debts at the time he lost the fingers, prosecutors said.



If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison, authorities said.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Two star-crossed lovers won’t hear wedding bells anytime soon, under order of the Texas attorney general.

Paula Rector, the Kerr County Tax Assessor-Collector, sought permission before marrying her fiancee, a district tax appraiser. The couple worried their union would violate the state’s nepotism law.

An opinion released Tuesday confirmed their fears, ruling that the couple could not marry and simultaneously retain their positions.

“Isn’t that crazy?” Rector said. “We thought it was funny that we had to wait for an attorney general’s opinion to tell us whether we could or couldn’t.”

The Kerr County Attorney had argued that the couple’s plight did not squarely fit inside the law’s provisions, because Rector doesn’t have a voice in employment matters.

But the attorney general ruled that state law trumps love.

Rector, 54, says she’s disappointed, but would wait until her retirement to marry her fiance. She has served five terms in office and said she may not seek re-election when her current term ends in three years.



LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A 17-year-old Omaha girl who apparently tangled with a 76-year-old churchgoer has learned a lesson: Pick on someone your own age.

Pearl Fritts was dropping off her recycling when she heard someone behind her offered to help. When she refused assistance, Fritts said, she got clobbered.

“She just slammed my head against that bin,” Fritts said. “I was so shocked.”

So shocked – and now angered – that she whipped around and put up her dukes.

“I think she was surprised that a little old, gray-haired lady with glasses would come around swinging,” Fritts said.

The teenager was taller, Fritts said, but couldn’t have weighed more than 100 pounds.

The girl said she wanted Fritts’ car, Fritts told police. Soon she realized Fritts wasn’t about to give up the car and she ran. The girl was found and picked up at a nearby restaurant.



TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese man who skipped out on his cab fares after crisscrossing the country in a taxi won’t be going anywhere soon.

Koichi Machida, 37, was sentenced to a year and eight months in prison, a court official said.

Machida had a tab of $4,391.67 for three separate rides clocking a total of 1,240 miles, Aomori District Court spokesman Tsutomu Maekawa said.

Over the summer, Machida rode 620 miles from Inabe to Sendai, about 20 miles from Nagoya to Inabe, and about 600 miles from Toyohashi in central Japan to the northeastern city of Aomori, the spokesman said.

Machida told one driver a family member was in critical condition, the spokesman said.