Monday May 30, 2011
Dan Reeves spent nine years and $US40,000 building a two-seater aeroplane, piece by piece, via the mail, in the basement of his Pennsylvania home. He then had to pay another $5000 to knock out a wall and excavate a trench to drag it out using chains, a truck and several neighbours.
Wednesday May 25, 2011
Texas is passing a law to make noodling, or catching catfish by grabbing the feisty creatures by their jaws, legal again. If Governor Rick Perry approves, ''hillbilly hand-fishers'' can return to the creeks without risking a $500 fine.
Tuesday May 24, 2011
Car-friendly Venezuela, where petrol is almost free and testing for drunk drivers virtually unknown, has suspended a driver's licence for the first time. The bus driver's speeding, overladen bus was missing one of its rear wheels.
Monday May 23, 2011
A police helicopter was scrambled and a British golf course cleared after a white tiger was seen in a field - only to turn out to be a stuffed toy. Hampshire police had received several calls reporting sightings of the tiger near Hedge End, Southampton.
Saturday May 21, 2011
Not wishing to alarm people by using real names, Hungary's disaster management agency is testing an emergency broadcast system with warnings of catastrophic weather in Gondor, Rohan, Rivendell, Helm's Deep and other locations in Middle-earth, from The Lord of the Rings.
Wednesday May 18, 2011
A British wildlife charity is urging the public to provide fresh dollops of mud in their gardens to help birds struggling to build nests. The driest April on record has left swallows and martins, species that typically build ornate nests, without the mud needed to construct their homes.
Tuesday May 17, 2011
Italians take their ham seriously. Police were called to a scuffle after a woman complained about the thickness of ham being cut by a counter assistant. A row ensued between the assistant's father and the woman's husband and two sons.
Monday May 16, 2011
A man with "Please forgive me if I say or do anything stupid. Thank You!" tattooed on his forehead has been arrested on assault charges. Robert Kennedy, 51, was jailed in North Carolina. It is not known whether his victim was able to read the message before the assault.
Saturday May 14, 2011
A student in England was turned down for a teaching job after a criminal record check revealed she stole a pencil - when she was nine. A check on the unnamed woman, 22, showed she had been given ''words of advice'' in 1998. A Wiltshire police spokesman said: ''It has now been deleted.''
Wednesday May 11, 2011
A mayor in Texas is retiring at 94, after being the only person to hold the office in almost 40 years. Olive Stephens won her first election to Shady Shores town council in 1962, two years after the town was formed, and was elected mayor in 1972.
Tuesday May 10, 2011
A woman from Oregon has been diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome after waking from dental surgery with a British-sounding accent. The syndrome is so rare that only 60 confirmed cases have been documented around the world.
Wednesday May 4, 2011
Dopey South Wales cops saw a £300,000 cannabis haul go to pot when a chunk of it was stolen from under their noses. As officers stood guard over the haul at the front of the club where the pot was found, thieves broke in via the back and stole £15,000 worth of the crop.
Tuesday May 3, 2011
Arizona's Court of Appeals has ruled that Cindy Vong can sue the state over its threat to cancel her licence if she doesn't stop offering a pedicure that uses fish to eat dead skin off clients' feet. A state board said the fish were unsafe because they couldn't be sterilised.
Monday May 2, 2011
Two New York jail guards are in trouble after an inmate stepped in to break up their fight over food. Erie County Undersheriff Mark Wipperman says both corrections officers have been suspended with pay after an incident he describes as an ''embarrassment''.
Tuesday April 26, 2011
The CIA says it has found a way to make the ‘‘burn after reading’’ process of classified papers environmentally friendly, generating steam to heat water and reducing landfill. The US intelligence agency did not, however, offer to show how its secret shredding is done.
Monday April 25, 2011
A South Korean who cooked his mobile phone in a microwave and claimed compensation from Samsung has been jailed for one year for extortion. The 28-year-old received about 5 million won (about $A4000) after claiming his phone exploded.
Saturday April 23, 2011
France’s notoriously tough riot police are threatening to go on strike — over a ban on drinking alcohol on duty. The riot squads have always been allowed beer or wine during crowd-control operations. The ban follows pictures of riot officers drinking while policing a demonstration in Paris.
Wednesday April 20, 2011
A boy of six crashed his mother’s car after driving off from home to buy food because he was hungry. The boy crashed into several letter boxes in the Klamath Falls area of Oregon, then swerved into an opposite lane before hitting a ute. He escaped unhurt.
Tuesday April 19, 2011
British farmer has dyed his sheep orange to foil rustlers. Dartmoor farmer John Heard has painted his isolated moorland flock of 250 ewes, at $220 each, with a non-toxic dye. Since the price of lamb began to rise, there has been a five-fold increase in rustling.
Monday April 18, 2011
A man who bit back after he was caught by a Phoenix, Arizona, police dog is suing for $US450,000. Erin Sullivan, 33, alleges the dog violated his civil rights and used excessive force after he ran from officers during a burglary last year. Police say Sullivan bit the dog, injuring it.
Saturday April 16, 2011
A pizza chain in Britain has created its own image of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Papa John’s worked with a food artist to create the pizza, which includes Catherine’s veil made from mushrooms; her dress from cheese; and William’s morning suit out of salami and capsicum.
Saturday April 16, 2011
A pizza chain in Britain has created its own image of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Papa John's worked with a food artist to create the pizza, which includes Catherine's veil made from mushrooms; her dress from cheese; and William's morning suit out of salami and capsicum.
Wednesday April 13, 2011
A British shopkeeper has found a way to pack a greater calorie punch this Easter . . . by dropping a creme egg in the deep fryer. The battered and fried chocolate egg is proving a hit in Yorkshire, even though it doubles the 173-calorie count of the traditional creme egg.
Tuesday April 12, 2011
Rodeo week in Pocatello, Idaho, kicked off with an unscheduled running of the bulls as three of the bucking beasts broke free and headed through town with cowboys and police in pursuit. The bulls were corralled almost two kilometres from the rodeo arena.
Monday April 11, 2011
A Californian woman charged with forgery tried to use a phony doctor’s certificate to get her sentencing delayed. The prosecutor exposed the fake and the judge has sentenced the woman, 41, to nearly five years’ jail on the original felony charge.
Wednesday April 6, 2011
Pupils at Scotland's Galashiels Academy fled when it started raining earthworms during a PE lesson on an astroturf pitch on a clear, calm day. Teacher David Crichton took cynics back and they found more than 120 worms on the pitch and nearby tennis courts. No explanation was found.
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Xu Guoyuan, at 238 centimetres, and Zhang Huan, at 101 centimetres, are putting on a month-long comedy and conjuring tour to raise $77,500 for disabled children in Chongqing, China. ‘‘Luckily we save on transport because I can just pop Huan in my pocket,’’ Xu said.
Thursday March 31, 2011
New Zealand's Moko the cheeky bottlenose dolphin has been named on Time's website as one of history's most heroic animals for preventing a pygmy sperm whale and calf from beaching themselves south of Gisborne in 2008 by leading them to deeper water.
Tuesday March 29, 2011
Thousands of Orthodox Christians have marched through Athens to protest against a government plan to issue electronic ID cards claiming the number 666, the ‘‘number of the beast’’, is hidden in its design. The protesters claim the card is an instrument of control.
Wednesday March 23, 2011
A firefighter in England has saved a dog's life by giving it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The dog, a mongrel called Sunny, was rescued from a house fire in Hull. Its rescuer, Mick Dunn, said he had already acquired nicknames such as ''dog snogger''.
