The Odd Truth, Aug. 5, 2003

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

Feel The Burn

HEINOLA, Finland - Braving 230-degree heat, a dozen men and women sweated in wooden cubicles Saturday as long as they could stand it, aiming to grab the Sauna World Championship title in southern Finland.

With a time of 13 minutes, Belorussian Natalia Trifanova won the Sauna Queen title under the watch of doctors and judges, beating out local favorite Annikki Peltonen.

"I'm pink but happy," beamed Trifanova, 36, a music teacher from Minsk, displaying blotchy red neck and arms. "I got a lot of satisfaction sitting in there today. It's an extreme sport for me."

Runner-up Peltonen, last year's winner, reeled out of the wooden sauna 12 seconds before the champion, saved from collapsing to the ground by a team of stewards.

The men's winner, Timo Kaukonen, a Finn from nearby Lahti, lasted 16 minutes, 15 seconds. He beat three-time champion Leo Pusa from the capital, Helsinki, by 7 seconds.

About 3,000 spectators cheered wildly as the finalists - six women and six men - sat in separate wide-windowed hexagonal saunas on the stage of an outdoor theater in this sleepy lakeside town, 85 miles northeast of Helsinki.

Showers inside spurted water every 30 seconds onto the sauna stones, intensifying the heat.

Jerry Springer Surprise!

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. - Paul Alexander's 15 minutes of fame have turned into a year in prison.

Alexander bragged on television that he dumped his girlfriend while a guest on "The Jerry Springer Show."

After receiving a tip, Cape May County prosecutors watched as Alexander and his 22-year-old girlfriend spoke of their 7-year-old child.

Authorities did the math and determined that the couple's sexual relationship began when the woman was 13, according to prosecutor Marian Ragusa.

Prosecutors charged Alexander, 29, with endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree sexual assault for having sex with the woman when she was underage.

The woman, who was identified only as Rita, told the court she didn't want Alexander sent to jail, but prosecutors and the judge were adamant that prison time was required.

"Once a person goes on national television and acknowledges committing a crime, I can't imagine a state - any state - standing idly by," said Judge Carmen Alvarez.

Angler Champ Confesses To Fish Fraud

LONDON - An avid angler who claimed a British record eight years ago for catching a monster rainbow trout said Monday that he didn't hook the fish. It was already dead.

"I just feel so much better about myself now. It's like a weight's been lifted off me," said Clive White, 35, who notified the British Fish Record Committee two weeks ago, saying he had lied about the catch.

"It has been so difficult keeping a secret like that away from my family and from my wife. No one will ever know what it was like."

He had claimed a record with a trout weighing 36 pounds, 14 ounces; that's 6 pounds, 2 ounces heavier than the previous British record.

White claimed on Monday that his friend, fishery worker Nigel Jackson, had raised the trout, hit it over the head and left it on the banks of one of the fishery's ponds ready for him to "catch" in a plot to set a record. White said he had felt guilty ever since.

"I felt so guilty. Not a week went by without me thinking about it. But I do feel a lot better now it's out in the open," he said. "I have never done any such practices before that and I have never done any since."

Jackson denied participating in a plot and insisted the fish had been alive when White caught it.

"The thing was still wriggling," Jackson said.

Car Crash Reveals White Supremacist Facade

CHALMETTE - A man who lost control of his car slammed into a Chalmette building owned by a white supremacist group that apparently distributes hate literature behind the facade of a former home improvement store.

Anti-Jewish and anti-black paperback books were strewn about the floor of the building after the car crashed into the structure. Francis Dardis, the car's driver, suffered minor abrasions and was treated at Chalmette Medical Center. No one inside the building was hurt.

The property is owned by the New Christian Crusade Church and is the headquarters of the Christian Defense League, two white-supremacist groups operated by James K. Warner of Chalmette.

Although the building bears a sign saying 'Southern Home Improvement Center,' Warner says it's used as an administrative building where New Christian Crusade Church meetings are held.

When asked about the literature, Warner told a reporter from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans "Go back to Israel where you belong. What we sell is our business."

Warner has been a leading figure in underground hate circles since making a name for himself in the early 1960s as a founding member of the American Nazi Party. The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League says Warner served as an officer in the Ku Klux Klan with longtime ally David Duke.

Stenographer Stymied In Speed Record Bid

SPARKS, Nev. - A fictitious traffic accident wrecked a court reporter's chance to beat an 81-year-old stenographic record.

Taking dictation at speeds rivaling an auctioneer's chant, Mark Kislingbury set out Friday to establish a new speed record during the National Court Reporters Association' annual convention.

But in a simulated question-and-answer session about a collision at an intersection, Kislingbury fell behind the staccato delivery in a section describing the traffic light.

"I had to drop (words) to catch up to where they were at," he said. "That one spot was a little harder than I thought it would be. On any given day, anyone can write poorly, including myself."

The dictation consisted of 360 words delivered in one minute. Kislingbury's goal was 95 percent accuracy, or 18 errors. He had 27 for 92.5 percent.

His intention was to exceed the 350 words a minute set in 1922 by Nat Behren, with some differences. Behren used a pen and shorthand, and there is no record of his accuracy.

Welcome To The University Of Life, Professor

SEATTLE - He's a college professor back home in Wisconsin - but police in Seattle don't think he's too bright. They've put the man in jail for what they're calling a "bonehead stunt."

Police say three people with parachutes jumped from a 300-foot-tall radio tower the other night - and only two of them made it all the way down.

The third man got stuck, about 150 feet in the air. He was snagged on a wire for more than two hours before being released.

A fire department rescuer climbed the tower, then slid down the wire and lowered the man to the ground.

Authorities say the jumper - identified as a 43-year-old college professor from Madison, Wisconsin - will probably be charged with criminal trespass and reckless endangerment. They say he put the lives of rescuers at risk.

His name hasn't been released.

Another Dangerous Cassette Thief Off The Streets

BRISBANE, Australia - It took more than 20 years, but police finally got some satisfaction in the case of a stolen Rolling Stones cassette.

David Anthony Leahy, 43, was convicted last week of stealing the $2.60 tape from a store in the northeastern tourist city of Cairns in 1982, the latest edition of the Gympie Times newspaper reported.

He was ordered to appear in court after police stopped him driving through the town of Gympie, 190 miles north of Brisbane, capital of Queensland state, and discovered an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Magistrate Paul Johnstone last Friday fined Leahy $130 for shoplifting and another $195 for not appearing in court after he was originally charged.

"The law will always catch up with you some time," Johnstone told Leahy in court, the Gympie Times reported. "It doesn't really matter whether it was 21 years ago or 21 hours ago."

Leahy's lawyer, Steve Cavanagh, said his client did not clearly remember the 1982 incident or his reason for not turning up in court when originally ordered to.

"The offense occurred so long ago, his recollection is very vague, as you can imagine," Cavanagh told the court.