Bank robber who only robbed on Thursdays jailed

A punctual New Jersey criminal who robbed banks every Thursday has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

Peter Bielecke pleaded guilty in June to one count of bank robbery, but also admitted five other holdups on consecutive Thursdays in January, February and March. He robbed banks in several cities including his hometown of Brick.

He didn't give a reason for choosing Thursdays - but authorities say the pattern made it a lot easier to track him.

The 40-year-old was arrested after a March 5 robbery in Old Bridge, New Jersey.

He'll serve five years and 10 months in prison, and also have to pay nearly $12,000 (around £7,400) in restitution under the sentence handed down on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Trenton.

Grenade-shaped cologne sparks emergency

A grenade-shaped bottle left under a busy bridge closed a major thoroughfare and brought police to investigate - only to discover that it contained French cologne.

The black bottle of Arsenal cologne by the design house of Gilles Cantuel looked realistic enough for police to halt rush-hour traffic Thursday morning.

The result was a three mile (5km) traffic jam in South America's biggest city - already known for its congested streets.

It wasn't clear if the bottle was left as a practical joke or for more sinister reasons, police investigator Renato Fernandes told the Globo news website.

Police have made no arrests in the case.

Police baffled as dozens of 'suicidal' cows throw themselves off cliff in the Alps

Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.

In the space of just three days, 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of metres to rocks below where they were killed instantly.

In each case, local mountain rescue services using a helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger to the local groundwater of pollution.

A police spokesman said: 'There are no large carnivores living in the Alps anymore who would once have disposed of the bodies so they have to be moved.

We are investigating because cows growing up in the mountains normally can estimate dangers and do not plunge down cliffs.'

According to local reports, there had been violent thunderstorms in the area which may well have spooked the animals.

Cows wandering at high altitude are a common sight across much of the Alps, where farmers let them loose to graze on the green plateaus above the villages.

Often carrying large bells around their necks, most are dairy cows as the mix of vegetation and grasses at that high altitude are particularly good for milk and for making cheese.

Cows do occasionally fall to their deaths in these Alpine regions although it is rare for so many to fall in one particular place.

There has been speculation in the past that when this does happen it is because a tightly-grouped number have followed each other as they search for more grass.

Most scientists generally believe that animals are incapable of committing suicide.

Even lemmings, which by popular myth throw themselves off cliffs during mating season, do not take their own lives intentionally.

Instead, evolutionary pressures cause them to feel the urge to change habitat at which point they migrate in huge droves.

Sometimes, particularly in Scandinavia, they reach clifftops overlooking an ocean and, driven by the urge to cross a body of water, throw themselves off in order to swim to the other side.

They often die of exhaustion or drown as a result.

The myth came to the public's attention when a Disney wildlife film in the 1950s mocked up the lemming migration to make it look like the animals had committed suicide.

Michael Jackson's death homicide: Coroner

Michael Jackson's death has been declared a homicide by Los Angeles coroners as they revealed the singer had a lethal cocktail of six different drugs in his body when he died.

Ending several weeks of feverish speculation following Jackson's sudden death in Los Angeles on June 25, the county coroner's office issued a brief statement Friday ruling that the superstar's death was unlawful.

The statement said that while "acute intoxication" from the powerful anesthetic propofol was the primary cause of death, Jackson, 50, had also suffered from the effects of other drugs in his system.

As well as propofol, powerful drugs including lorazepam, midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine were found in Jackson's body.

The coroner's statement said police investigators and public prosecutors had ordered that the full toxicology report concerning Jackson be withheld until further notice.

Jackson's family welcomed the findings.

"The Jackson family again wishes to commend the actions of the coroner, the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies, and looks forward to the day that justice can be served," the family said in a statement.

The coroner's announcement will fuel speculation that authorities are likely to charge Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray in connection with the death. Cardiologist Murray was the last person to see Jackson alive.

A lawyer for Murray issued a statement in response to Friday's announcement, saying the coroner's release "contains nothing new."

"For two months we have been hearing the same information, usually from leaks out of the coroner's office," attorney Ed Chernoff said in a statement.

"One has to wonder why the coroner felt compelled to release anything at all if the police investigation is not yet complete."

According to court documents unsealed in Houston, Texas, on Monday, multiple drugs were administered to Jackson by Murray in the hours before his death.

Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran "reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson's cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol."

Murray administered propofol and other drugs to Jackson -- at the star's insistence -- to treat his insomnia, but was worried Jackson had developed an addiction and "tried to wean Jackson off of the drug," the affidavit said.

Propofol is a powerful anesthetic used to induce unconsciousness in patients undergoing major surgery in hospital. Medical professionals say it should never be used by private individuals at home.

The affidavit unsealed on Monday revealed that Murray told investigators two days after the star died that he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol nightly during the six weeks prior to the event.

As part of their investigation, police and federal agents have already raided Murray's offices in Las Vegas, Nevada and Houston, Texas, as well as a Las Vegas pharmacy that provided the drugs.

Murray told investigators he was not the first doctor to administer propofol to the King of Pop, who referred to the drug as his "milk," LAPD detective Orlando Martinez wrote in the affidavit, citing the cardiologist.

Medical experts said the cocktail of drugs apparently given to Jackson was extremely dangerous and police would need to determine whether administering it was tantamount to medical negligence.

"If all of these drugs... are also shown, this would be a classical case of acute combined drug toxicity," forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht told CNN.

Jackson is to be buried at a cemetery in Glendale, California on September 3, his family announced last week. They had originally planned to bury him on Saturday -- the day he would have turned 51.

Instead, Jackson's birthday will be a day for celebration and commemoration for fans around the world.

In New York's Brooklyn borough, crowds of up to 10,000 people are set to flock to a day of festivities marking the international superstar's birthday.

The borough's president is to declare the day Michael Jackson Day in Brooklyn, The New York Times reported, and Reverend Al Sharpton would open the festivities with a prayer.

The free celebration, organized by director Spike Lee, could be dampened somewhat by bad weather associated with Tropical Storm Danny, which is expected to bring heavy rains and strong winds to the US east coast Saturday.

100 Greatest Science Discoveries of All Time ~ #2: The Sun Is the Center of the Universe

What Is It? The sun is the center of the universe and the earth rotates around it.

Who Discovered It? Nicholaus Copernicus

Year of Discover? A.D. 1520

Why Is This One of the 100 Greatest?

Copernicus measured and observed the planets and stars. He gathered, compiled, and compared the observations of dozens of other astronomers. In so doing Copernicus challenged a 2,000-year-old belief that the earth sat motionless at the center of the universe and that planets, sun, and stars rotated around it. His work represents the beginning point for our understanding of the universe around us and of modern astronomy.

He was also the first to use scientific observation as the basis for the development of a scientific theory. (Before his time logic and thought had been the basis for theory.) In this way Copernicus launched both the field of modern astronomy and modern scientific methods.

How Was It Discovered?

In 1499 Copernicus graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy; was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church; and returned to Poland to work for his uncle, Bishop Waczenrode, at the Frauenburg Cathedral. Copernicus was given the top rooms in a cathedral tower so he could continue his astronomy measurements.

At that time people still believed a model of the universe created by the Greek scientist, Ptolemy, more than 1,500 years earlier. According to Ptolemy, the earth was the center of the universe and never moved. The sun and planets revolved around the earth in great circles, while the distant stars perched way out on the great spherical shell of space. But careful measurement of the movement of planets didn’t fit with Ptolomy’s model.

So astronomers modified Ptolemy’s universe of circles by adding more circles within circles, or epi-circles. The model now claimed that each planet traveled along a small circle (epi-circle) that rolled along that planet’s big orbital circle around the earth. Century after century, the errors in even this model grew more and more evident. More epi-circles were added to the model so that planets moved along epi-circles within epi-circles.

Copernicus hoped to use “modern” (six teenth-century) technology to improve on Ptolemy’s measurements and, hopefully, eliminate some of the epi-circles.

For almost 20 years Copernicus painstakingly measured the position of the planets each night. But his tables of findings still made no sense in Ptolemy’s model.

Over the years, Copernicus began to wonder what the movement of the planets would look like from another moving planet. When his calculations based on this idea more accurately predicted the planets’ actual movements, he began to wonder what the motion of the planets would look like if the earth moved. Immediately, the logic of this notion became apparent.

Each planet appeared at different distances from the earth at different times through out a year. Copernicus realized that this meant Earth could not lie at the center of the planets’ circular paths.

From 20 years of observations he knew that only the sun did not vary in apparent size over the course of a year. This meant that the distance from Earth to the sun had to always remain the same. If the earth was not at the center, then the sun had to be. He quickly calculated that if he placed the sun at the universe’s center and had the earth or bit around it, he could completely eliminate all epi-circles and have the known planets travel in simple circles around the sun.

But would anyone believe Copernicus’s new model of the universe? The whole world—and especially the all-powerful Catholic Church—believed in an Earth-centered universe.

For fear of retribution from the Church, Copernicus dared not release his findings during his life time. They were made public in 1543, and even then they were consistently scorned and ridiculed by the Church, astronomers, and universities alike. Finally, 60 years later, first Johannes Kepler and then Galileo Galilei proved that Copernicus was right.

Fun Facts:

Approximately one million Earths can fit inside the sun. But that is slowly changing. Some 4.5 pounds of sunlight hit the earth each second.

Goldfish survives sewage adventure

A goldfish which survived being flushed down the toilet is enjoying a new lease of life after being rescued from a sewage plant.

Worker Jake Huey noticed the fish flailing on a mesh filtering screen he was cleaning at the Scottish Water site near East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

He picked it up and rushed to the treatment building, where he put it in water in an emergency tank.

The fish, nicknamed Pooh, is now being looked after at the Philipshill Waste Water Treatment Works until a new home can be found for it.

Winkers: the jeans that wink at you

Meet the jeans that wink as you walk.

The amusingly named Winkers, whose buttock-eyes appear to wink coquettishly at anybody following the wearer, are the invention of William A. Jones, a retired father of five and grandfather of seven who lives in Everett, Washington.

Jones says that the idea came to him when, naturally, he was checking out a woman as she walked past him. Nice.

He says he was sure that her jeans-clad bottom winked at him as she strolled by. A little more thought, and the idea of jeans with eyes in the buttock-folds was born.

Jones experimented with his daughter's jeans and discovered he could indeed make the jeans wink, and came up with the name Winkers.

His range isn't limited to just eyes, though - the range also features ducks that seem to quack, an owl that blinks, and a lion in a jungle scene.

Note for stalkers: they're not actually winking at you. This is not a sign.

Man's bottom gets glued to toilet seat

A man became stuck to a toilet seat in a shopping centre after someone smeared it with fast-acting glue.

An ambulance was called to help the man, 58, after he was found stuck to the toilet seat on Saturday in a busy shopping mall.

Paramedics removed the seat from the toilet and took him to a hospital, where medical staff used industrial solvents to get it off.

Cairns local government official Di Forsyth said the man, who was not identified, was not injured but was "extremely embarrassed" by his experience.

Officials described it as a fast-acting adhesive glue.

They said it was a prank and described it as a sick joke.

Ms Forsyth said: "I'm disgusted that a gentlemen has had to go through that because someone thinks it's funny. It's a sick joke."

Lip balm that 'burns fat' goes on sale

A "fat burning" lip balm that can stop women craving food such as chocolate has gone on sale in Britain.

Burner Balm can stop women craving sweets by suppressing their appetite and boosting their energy, its makers claim.

The £4.95 lip balm contains pure soy oils, caffeine and green tea extracts. It also contains hoodia, thought to be an appetite suppressor.

It comes in five flavors - pomegranate, vanilla, strawberry, acai berry and mint.

According to the firm's website, it can be applied up to six times day.

But the makers recommend not putting it on at night as the caffeine in it might keep you awake.

The website states: "If you are feeling tired, apply Burner Balm...If you are between meals and feel an urge to snack, apply Burner Balm...

"Best used on naked lips or apply under lipstick. You can use the product throughout the day when needed...4 to 6 times daily.

"But some health and eating disorder charities have attacked the makers for exploiting women's fears about gaining weight.

They have called it a gimmick and doubt it will lead to substantial weight loss.

Burner Balm has been on sale in the US for six months and is now available in the Britain from Hqhair.com.

A report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found green tea could increase a person's energy expenditure by four per cent.

Police seize cocaine sewn inside turkeys

Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug drug surgically implanted inside the birds.

Acting on a tip, officers stopped a Turismo Ejecutivo SRL bus outside the city of Tarapoto in the central jungle state of San Martin, officials said Monday.

Police were puzzled when they found the turkeys in the crate, but didn't find the cocaine, Tarapoto's anti-drug police chief, Otero Gonzalez, said.

They then noticed that the two turkeys were bloated.

"Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam," he said.

A veterinarian extracted 11 oval-shaped plastic capsules containing 1.9kg (4.2lbs) of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs) from the other, he said.

Both turkeys survived the removal.

Police were searching for whoever sent the shipment from Juanjui to Tarapoto, which is on a smuggling route from Peru's east Andean coca-producing valleys to northern coastal cities, where it is sold to Mexican and Colombian traffickers.

Gangs often use human couriers who swallow cocaine to sneak it across borders but it is unusual to use animals.

In 2005, Colombian police found a total of 3 kg (6.6lbs) of heroin sewn into the bellies of six puppies during a raid on a veterinarian clinic.

Man misses dragonfly, shoots friend

A man who says he was using his rifle to shoot at dragonflies accidently shot his friend in the head.

Police said when they arrived the friend was bleeding heavily.

But he was conscious enough to be able to tell paramedics that the whole thing had been an accident.

According to Georgetown Times, in South Carolina, in the US, the friend and a 38-year-old Johnsonville man were in the woods in a nearby hunting club practicing with a rifle.

The man said he was trying to shoot some dragonflies when his friend walked in front of him and was shot in the head.

Apple to release Snow Leopard on Friday

Snow Leopard, the highly anticipated new operating system for the Mac, will be released ahead of schedule Friday, Apple announced Monday.

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to the current Leopard system for $29 and can be pre-ordered now, the company said.

"Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever, and we're happy to get it to users earlier than expected," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering. "For just $29, Leopard users get a smooth upgrade to the world's most advanced operating system and the only system with built-in [Microsoft] Exchange support."

The company said in a news release that, for Snow Leopard, Apple engineers refined 90 percent of the 1,000 projects that currently make up its operating system.

Among the anticipated features will be what Apple promises to be faster applications, including e-mail and Web browser Safari 4, while freeing up 7 GB of drive space, compared with the current system.

An upgraded Quick Time system will let users more easily view, record, trim and share video, the company said, and it will include improvements to the system's iCal calendar, podcast producer and wiki server.

The system had been scheduled for a September release date. But speculation in recent days had centered on an earlier release.

Apple rival Microsoft is set to release Windows 7, a new version of its PC operating system, on October 22.

Mac users were reporting that Apple's online stores were unavailable Monday morning, presumably to add the order page for Snow Leopard.

The announcement Monday created the buzz typical of any Apple announcement among the world of devoted Mac users. Both "Snow Leopard" and "Mac OS X Snow" had become trending topics on Twitter on Monday morning -- with response mostly positive.

Michael Jackson to be buried on his birthday

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson will be buried in a private ceremony for family and friends on August 29, which would have been the pop star's 51st birthday, representatives for the Jackson family said on Tuesday.

The 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) burial will be held at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in a suburb of Los Angeles, a family spokesman said in a statement.

"The Jackson family once again wishes to express its gratitude to Michael's fans around the world for their support during these difficult times," the spokesman said.

The "Thriller" singer died suddenly on June 25 after suffering cardiac arrest. But the reason why Jackson's heart stopped, if one is known, has not been made public.

An autopsy report remains sealed while police complete their investigation into the role prescription drugs may have played in his death and the actions of his doctors.

Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with Jackson when he died, said in a personal video posted on YouTube on Tuesday that he was "afraid to return phone calls" or use e-mail due to the controversy over Jackson's death.

"I want to thank all of my patients and friends who have sent such kind e-mails, letters and messages to let me know of your support and prayers for me and my family," Murray said.

"I have done all I could do," Murray added. "I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail."

Police have raided Murray's Las Vegas home and medical office, as well as his Houston office, but he has not been formally charged. Police have also searched the offices of other doctors who treated Jackson.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department declined to comment about Murray on Tuesday or say when police might wrap up their investigation.

Cash-throwing man causes traffic jam

A man caused a traffic jam when he threw money onto a LosAngeles-area freeway and people dashed into the lanes to grab the cash.

Highway Patrol Sgt. Kurt Stormes says the man tossed money from his car on Interstate 210 shortly before noon Sunday, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. Stormes says about 10 people ran into traffic lanes to get it.

Police recovered about $1,000.

Shahrukh Khan clarifies that his detention was not a drama

Mumbai, Aug 18 : Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan on Tuesday clarified that his detention at Newark International Airport in the US was not a drama.

Addressing mediapersons here after his return, Khan said, "I was asked bizarre questions by the airport officials. It wasn''t a drama. I don''t want publicity. But, I feel routine procedure was not followed there. We should not be treated on the basis of our colour or nationality."

Recalling the incident, he said he was not angry over what had happened there. However, he felt that the airport officials ''went a little overboard'' with the questioning.

Denying that he felt bad about the questioning, he said what really hurt him was the question they popped at him several times, "Your name is very common. Can anyone vouch for you to enter here?"

Rubbishing reports that he was trying to promote his upcoming movie ''My Name is Khan'', he said, "I hate people who rake up religious issues for their personal gains. I don''t want to sound pompous here but I don''t need publicity to promote my movie. I am too big a star for that."

The actor also said the incident would not prevent him from visiting the US again.
He said that if a ''tit for tat'' policy was to be followed, then he would love to be allowed to frisk Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie or Megan Fox.

Khan was detained for about two hours at the airport where he had arrived to attend a South Asian related event in Atlantic City.

Khan was released after Congress MP Rajiv Shukla spoke to the authorities in the US and the Indian consulate.

He was detained after his name flashed on a computer and was asked several questions about the purpose of his visit.

100 Greatest Science Discoveries of All Time ~ #1: LEVERS and BUOYANCY

What Is It? The two fundamental principles underlying all physics and engineering.

Who Discovered It? Archimedes

Year of Discover? 260 B.C

Why Is This One of the 100 Greatest?

The concepts of buoyancy (water pushes up on an object with a force equal to the weight of water that the object displaces) and of levers (a force pushing down on one side of a lever creates a lifting force on the other side that is proportional to the lengths of the two sides of the lever) lie at the foundation of all quantitative science and engineering. They represent humanity’s earliest breakthroughs in understanding the relationships in the physical world around us and in devising mathematical ways to describe the physical phenomena of the world. Countless engineering and scientific advances have depended on those two discoveries.

How Was It Discovered?

In 260 B.C. 26-year-old Archimedes studied the two known sciences—astronomy and geometry in Syracuse, Sicily. One day Archimedes was distracted by four boys playing on the beach with a drift wood plank. They balanced the board over a waist-high rock. One boy straddled one end while his three friends jumped hard onto the other. The lone boy was tossed into the air.

The boys slid the board off-center along their balancing rock so that only one-quarter of it remained on the short side. Three of the boys climbed onto the short, top end. The fourth boy bounded onto the rising long end, crashing it back down to the sand and catapulting his three friends into the air.

Archimedes was fascinated. And he determined to understand the principles that so easily allowed a small weight (one boy) to lift a large weight (three boys).

Archimedes used a strip of wood and small wooden blocks to model the boys and their drift wood. He made a triangular block to model their rock. By measuring as he balanced different combinations of weights on each end of the lever (lever came from the Latin word meaning “to lift”), Archimedes realized that levers were an example of one of Euclid’s proportions at work. The force (weight) pushing down on each side of the lever had to be proportional to the lengths of board on each side of the balance point. He had discovered the mathematical concept of levers, the most common and basic lifting system ever devised.

Fifteen years later, in 245 B.C., Archimedes was ordered by King Hieron to find out whether a goldsmith had cheated the king. Hieron had given the smith a weight of gold and asked him to fashion a solid-gold crown. Even though the crown weighed exactly the same as the original gold, the king suspected that the goldsmith had wrapped a thin layer of gold around some other, cheaper metal inside. Archimedes was ordered to discover whether the crown was solid gold without damaging the crown itself.

It seemed like an impossible task. In a public bathhouse Archimedes noticed his arm floating on the water’s sur face. A vague idea began to form in his mind. He pulled his arm completely under the surface. Then he relaxed and it floated back up.

He stood up in the tub. The water level dropped around the tub’s sides. He sat back down. The water level rose.

He lay down. The water rose higher, and he realized that he felt lighter. He stood up. The water level fell and he felt heavier. Water had to be pushing up on his submerged body to make it feel lighter. He carried a stone and a block of wood of about the same size into the tub and submerged them both. The stone sank, but felt lighter. He had to push the wood down to submerge it. That meant that water pushed up with a force related to the amount of water displaced by the ob ject (the ob ject’s size) rather than to the object’s weight. How heavy the object felt in the water had to relate to the object’s density (how much each unit volume of it weighed).

That showed Archimedes how to answer the king’s question. He re turned to the king. The key was density. If the crown was made of some other metal than gold, it could weigh the same but would have a dif ferent density and thus occupy a dif ferent volume.

The crown and an equal weight of gold were dunked into a bowl of water. The crown displaced more water and was thus shown to be a fake.

More important, Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy: Water pushes up on objects with a force equal to the amount of water the objects displace.

Fun Facts:

When Archimedes discovered the concept of buoyancy, he leapt form the bath and shouted the word he made famous: “Eureka!” which means “I found it!” That word be came the motto of the state of California after the first gold rush miners shouted that they had found gold.

Italian police fine tourist wanting to cool off in fountain

A Polish tourist must pay a 160-euro (225-dollar) fine after he got a bit too close to one of the fountains in the Italian city of Florence, police said Monday.

"The officers spotted him as he was preparing to climb the fountain. But they arrived in time to make him get down," a police official told AFP.

When the police had the would-be mountaineer on firm ground, he claimed he was too hot and simply wanted to cool off in the famous Fountain of Neptune, just a short distance from Michelangelo's David and the Uffizi Gallery.

"It happens quite often that people want to swim in this fountain, but usually we can catch them before anything happens," the official said.

The fountain, made up of various marble statues, has suffered a lot of damage since it was built in the 16th century.

The last act of vandalism occurred in August 2005 when a young man tried to climb the main statue and snapped off a hand.

Police cite beer-drinking Phelps over license after crash

BALTIMORE, Maryland — Police cited US swim star Michael Phelps on Friday for driving with an expired license and said the Beijing Olympic hero admitted drinking a beer about 75 minutes before a car crash.

Baltimore city police said the accident Thursday night at an intersection was not the fault of Phelps and he showed no signs of being impaired so no sobriety tests were administered.

Phelps, who won an unprecedented eight gold medals at last year's Beijing Olympics, was driving when his sports utility vehicle was struck by a car that ran a red light.

Phelps told police his right ankle was sore but did not seek medical treatment. Two passengers in the vehicle driven by Phelps were unharmed.

The driver of the other vehicle, Amanda Virkus, will be cited for failing to stop at a red light and causing an accident. She was treated at a hospital for back pain and released.

Her car suffered driver's side damage. Phelps's vehicle had hood damage. Two parked cars were also damaged.

Phelps, 24, faces citations for driving without as license and failing to establish Maryland residency.

The driver's license he showed police was an expired one from Michigan, where Phelps attended college before moving back to his hometown of Baltimore last year. Maryland citizens must renew residency and obtain new licenses.

While there is no fine involved, Phelps must appear in court.

Phelps won five titles at the World Swimming Championships in Rome that ended earlier this month and is training for the 2012 London Olympics.

Shortly after winning six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Phelps pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced to 18 months on probation.

Phelps was suspended for three months earlier this year by USA Swimming after a photograph of him holding a pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana was published in a British newspaper.

Police in South Carolina investigated the incident but found insufficient evidence to charge Phelps, who apologized and said he had learned a lesson from the incident.