Crazy stories

Thousands bid for cheese and onion chocolates It's like Willy Wonka's golden tickets. Thousands of Irish Australians are desperately trying to get their hands on 24 special chocolate bars that landed in Oz. The limited edition bars are sold out in Ireland but 24 were shipped to Australia to give Irish expats and Aussies the chance to taste them. What's so special about them? The bars are made from the famous Irish Tayto cheese and onion crisps mixed with Irish chocolate - all in one bar. A winning combination or a controversial mix? The jury is out but the response has been overwhelming. Taste Ireland Chief Executive Officer Eamon Eastwood is the holder of the elusive chocolate bars and decided to raffle them off in a Facebook campaign. I couldn't believe the reaction, it went off the Richter scale with almost half a million impressions, said Eastwood. It's an unusual taste - crunchy chocolate and then a lingering taste of cheese of onion, said Eastwood, who distributes the Irish goodies to Woolworths stores throughout the country and on his website. He will raffle off the five remaining bars on the Facebook page today and one at the Rose of Tralee ball at the Sydney Sofitel Wentworth tomorrow evening. But all is not lost for those who miss out - Eastwood has made a video demonstration of how you can create your own snack. Tayto, the Irish snack giant, decided to introduce the bar in response to thousands of emails and tweets from fans begging for a Tayto Bar . Eastwood set up Taste Ireland in 2005 to save thousands of Mammys posting the beloved Dairy Milk chocolate and crisps to their travelling children. Outage over death penalty plan Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has slammed the Papua New Guinea government's plan to apply the death penalty. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill last week laid down a mid-May deadline for a series of laws toughening sentences for violent crimes, such as murder and rape, to be debated in parliament. The government has seized on a series of brutal murders and rapes across the country to justify applying the death penalty, which has not been used in the Pacific Island nation since 1954. In essence it's state-sanctioned violence, Amnesty International spokeswoman Kate Schuetze told Radio Australia. Is this a deterrent to these people? It isn't, because it doesn't address the underlying causes, it doesn't address the fear that is prevailing about sorcery itself. Belief in sorcery is widespread in PNG and has taken on the form of horrific public show-trials where the accused, usually women, are murdered following hours of torture.