PARIS (Dec. 1) -- The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad last year had a taste of his own medicine Tuesday when he nearly got beaned by a shoe thrower at a news conference in Paris.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi ducked and the shoe hit the wall behind him.
"He stole my technique," al-Zeidi later quipped.

The identity of the new shoe-thrower — and his motivation — weren't immediately clear, but he appeared to be an Iraqi. It was not known if the intruder was a journalist or just pretended to be one to attend the news conference at a center for foreign reporters.

Whatever his motive, the confrontation didn't stop there.