AL-RASS, 9 April 2008 — After a number of stories involving babies being kidnapped or accidentally switched at hospitals, a mother decided not to take any chances and chained herself to her newborn daughter. According to a report in yesterday’s Al-Watan newspaper, visitors said they were surprised to see the mom chained to her newborn daughter by her wrists. The mom said she has been spooked by all the stories about hospital errors and baby kidnappings that she decided not to take any chances.

Joyriding Cure: Shave the Hippies

RIYADH, 9 April 2008 — Ah, joyriding: The phenomenon where young Saudi men take cars bought by their daddies and ruin transmissions, tires, suspensions — and sometimes their skulls — by trying to “out-reckless” each other with crazy stunts on public streets. Well, the small town of Niaria near Riyadh is fed up with crazy driving. A local daily reported that officials will now publicly lash and shave the heads of young men caught doing donuts, hanging out of their cars at high speeds, or doing the infamous “drifting” maneuver where at high speeds drivers apply the emergency hand brake and attempt to slide gracefully at odd vehicular angles. More often than not, a driver attempting a “graceful” drifting stunt usually ends up looking like an amateur idiot behind the wheel of a car he doesn’t deserve to own. The head shaving might seem like an odd punishment, but in Niaria young men take pride in long, hippie hair. So officials decided to hit them where it hurts: Their vanity.