NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE: MORE BANG FOR YOUR HOLIDAY WEEKEND

In honor of the Fourth of July weekend we will visit sites that begin with the word "Bang." That's right, you've guessed it we're off to Bangkok, Thailand, Bangladesh and Bangor, Maine.

Well, let's start at the Bangkok Post where the headline reads "Japanese men face flesh trade charges." But what gets me is the next line in big bold type: "Caught with fake passports." That's right prostitution will get you a headline, but fake passports merit big bold type.

There's good news for the son of an army official in Bangkok. On Monday he walked into a police station and shot up the place and took two hostages because he was charged with illegal possession of firearms. A panel of doctors ruled that he wasn't deranged.

The judge also is holding him in jail without bond, to which the gunman said he would have his revenge on the police.

The doctors, however, never addressed the issue of whether the gunman was stupid.

In other Bangkok news, the government has just released their currency the "baht" from its ties to the dollar.

In other news, the former Thailand finance minister, Amnuay Viravan, had a stroke in Hong Kong. Are these stories related?

And two Democrat MPs will likely go to jail because of a weekend stunt they pulled at the home of Democrat secretary general Sanan Kachornprasat. The two men produced amphetamine based drugs they purchased in the secretary general's district to show the country's failed anti-drug efforts. They showed the drugs to reporters and really made the secretary general angry.

Let's file that one under how dare you bring light to my failed anti-drug policy.

Well, let's go to Bangor, Maine, where the governor, Angus King, said that he is leaning toward filing for federal funds to teach teens that abstinence is the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and STDs.

Another way to create an environment for abstinence would be to have all the boys in the state named Angus, a source close to the governor might have said.

Well, let's run to Bangladesh real quick where the fertility rate has fallen from seven percent to 3.3 percent. And in a related story Angus is the most popular name in Bangladesh.

Well, let's get back to Bangor. It seems some local ice cream makers have added lobster to vanilla ice cream. They are calling the concoction lobster ice cream.

The owners got the idea after trying lobster Jello in Canada.

But there is good news for people that don't live in Maine. The company doesn't ship the product out of the state.

And finally, police arrested some teens in Houlton, Maine, for making 20 pipe bombs.

The police said the pipe bombs had the potential to produce "a heck of a blast!" Hey, watch your language.

The police in Houlton also said, "it doesn't take a lot of explosives to ruin your whole day." Let's file that one under things we already knew.

Well that's it for now. And should you get tired of fireworks going off in your yard, remember they could be pipe bombs. So consider yourself lucky.

Michael Wells is the editor of the Jackson USA Signal.