Litigation nation junior

After Canadian slow-pitch softball player George Black, 53, lost sight of a line drive in the setting sun and wound up getting hit in the face while playing third base, he filed a lawsuit seeking $1.5 million. The defendant is the company that owns the playing field, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, which Black’s lawsuit argues should have provided a sun screen to protect him and other players and warned them “of the dangers of the sun at that particular time of day.” Denying Dofasco’s motion to have the case dismissed, despite expert testimony that most ball fields are designed so the sun doesn’t shine in the batter’s, not the fielders’ eyes, and that it would be impractical to provide sun shading for all infield positions at all times, Ontario Superior Court Judge James R.H. Turnbull ruled the case could proceed to trial. “I’m going after them,” Black said. (Canada’s The Globe and Mail)

Cause and defect

Earthquakes are caused by women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously, according to a senior Islamic cleric in Iran. “Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader, told Iranian media. The only way “to avoid being buried under the rubble,” Sedighi noted, is “to take refuge in religion and to adopt our lives to Islam’s moral codes,” including women covering themselves from head to toe in loose-fitting clothing. (Associated Press) A 24-year-old Muslim woman died while driving a go-kart at a recreational area in New South Wales, Australia, when part of her loose-fitting, head-to-toe burqa got caught in the vehicle’s wheels and strangled her. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Slightest provocation

Authorities in Allegheny County, Pa., charged Robert Abrams, 40, with killing his wife during an argument by hitting her in the head with a hammer at least 10 times and stabbing her, then setting their house on fire to conceal evidence of the killing. Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the two quarreled because Robert Abrams had stayed up late the night before to watch a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game, which went into three overtimes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Lorraine Bulloch, 43, accidentally stabbed her 1- year-old niece in the head during an argument over the price of gas used when she drove her brother to buy beer in Chatham County, Ga. The police report said the argument escalated when the brother began calling her names, and she responded by grabbing a knife from a drawer and throwing it at him. He ducked, and the blade struck the girl, who was hospitalized in serious condition. (Savannah Morning News)

Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.