IN PRACTICE

Smothering Mother

An Austrian woman who bombarded her son with phone calls over a two-and-a-half year period was fined by a court for stalking him. The 73-year-old woman, who phoned her son up to 49 times a day, was fined 360 Euros (US$478) by the court in the southern city of Klagenfurt. The woman told the court that she just wanted to talk to him and claimed she has not seen her grandchild who is already 15 years old. The case was brought by the son.

Long-distance Divorce

We've heard of long-distance relationships, but in what is reported to be the first known divorce of its kind in Saudi Arabia, a court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah has finalised the split by a Saudi man who divorced his wife via text message. The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing her that she was no longer his spouse. He followed up with a telephone call to two of his relatives. The court finalised the divorce under Islamic Sharia law after summoning the two relatives to check that they had received word of the husband's intention.

Can the Cane

A Texas justice of the peace who gave parents of school-dodging children the choice of paddling their children in court or paying a fine has received a warning from the state panel that oversees judicial conduct. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct rebuked Gustavo Garza for violations of judicial conduct that included the option of spankings, instead of $500 fines. The commission found Garza had exceeded his authority by providing a 'safe haven' for corporal punishment. Garza responded that he believed the positive result of reduced truancy cases in the school district outweighed any harm from the spankings.

All Cleaned Out

Giving a different meaning to the phrase "taking him to the cleaners", a German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time. German media reported, the wife went through 15 years of marriage, putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture. She ran out of patience,however, when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall in their home when it got dirty. Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, stated further that he had never had anyone seek a divorce for this before.