A reporter for WCGS-TV in New York was fired Thursday after he uttered the curse word during a live broadcast. Arthur Chi'en was delivering a live intro to a feature when two men walked up behind him holding up signs and singing "Opie and Anthony," the name of two popular shock jocks.

Two of the victims are in a coma and the others showed signs of severe poisoning, such as bleeding from the throat after consuming the pizza Friday that had been tainted and sent by an admirer of one of the teens. Police found a letter addressed to one of the victims - a 16-year-old referred to only as Paulo. The deliveryman said the suspect was a plump, short woman about 18 to 20 years old.

South African zoo workers are working to find a way for their star chimpanzee to quit smoking. Charlie, a grown male chimp at the Bloemfontein Zoo, has been picking up cigarettes thrown to him by visitors and smoking them. Zoo officials blame the habit on its visitors, stating the chimp probably picked up the habit after mimicking the humans he saw daily. "Baby chimps pick up habits by mimicking adults and we think he started mimicking smokers at his enclosure which probably led to smokers throwing him cigarettes," says zoo spokesman Daryl Barnes. Charlie is already showing the signs of a true nicotine addict. "He even acts like a naughty schoolboy by hiding the cigarette when staff approach the area," Barnes said, adding that the zoo was determined to help him quit.

A Mississippi politician in the midst of his city council candidacy finds himself fighting to keep his campaign signs from being stolen or defaced by fans of a Comedy Central's "The Chappelle Show. " Rick James, the 50-year-old candidate for city council in Hattiesburg, Mississippi not the late "Super Freak" singer, was unaware of comedian Dave Chappelle's satirical routine in which he repeats the phrase, "I'm Rick James, Bitch," until recently. The aspiring politician's "Vote Rick James" signs have become wall decoration for local college dorm rooms and cause for complaints by locals who have the signs in their yards with the B-word scribbled across it. According to James, Chappelle is aware of the incidents but has yet to contact him. Comedy Central responded with a statement apologizing for the missing campaign signs. The statement was sent via email to a friend of the network's at The New York Post after James' wife, Diane, wrote to the channel lightheartedly requesting $700 for the stolen and defaced signs. With less then three weeks left before the May 3rd primaries, James is down to his last 10 signs, and can't afford anymore. "People don't realize I don't have the money to start this up," he said. "If I did, I'd be putting them out in the yard, because my main goal is not to make money off this, but to actually win this campaign. " Despite the local controversy and losses, the James' have kept a good attitude about the whole incident. Their answering machine features music by the legendary pop singer, "Super Freak," and James has joked that his popular name would increase his chances of winning the presidency some day. James said he's in talks with "The Daily Show" to appear in a potential sketch. "I told the producers it would be funny if they sent somebody down to follow me around as I knock on doors campaigning," he said. "I usually say, 'Hi, I'm Rick James,' and it'd be funny if there was someone there to insert that B-word. I'm not going to say it, but if someone else did, that'd be as hysterical as you can get. "