Study in black and white

May 23, 2011 at 5:35 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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THE NEWS

Odd news from around the world

British Keystone Kops chase escaped tiger that turned out to be a TOY: “When members of the public rang in saying they had spotted an escaped white tiger in a field, police certainly weren’t going to take any chances. Scrambling a helicopter, sending out armed officers and calling in help from a nearby zoo, the hunt for the beast began. But the force’s efforts proved to have been a waste of time – because the ‘tiger’ turned out to be a large cuddly toy. Officers evacuated a golf course near the field and warned locals to stay indoors until they had captured the beast. It was only when thermal-imaging cameras failed to register any heat from the target that officers became suspicious. And when a blast of air from the helicopter blades flipped the ‘tiger’ on to its back, red-faced officers realised they had been stalking a life-size stuffed animal.”

Japs kick out foul-mouthed British “comedian”: “Comic actor Russell Brand was expelled from Japan on Sunday, his US pop star wife Katy Perry wrote on microblogging site Twitter as she arrived for a series of concerts. The comedian also took to Twitter to make light of his situation. “Planning escape from Japanese custody. It’s bloody hard to dig a tunnel with a chopstick”, he Tweeted late last night. Japanese officials however, didn’t appear to be laughing. An immigration official in Tokyo declined to confirm her comments. “We don’t make comments on such a matter because of privacy concerns,” the official told AFP.”

Wacky hat sells for big bucks: “The flamboyant hat worn by Princess Beatrice at last month’s British royal wedding was Sunday sold for the princely sum of £81,100 ($131,652) on internet auction site eBay. Proceeds from the sale of the hat, designed by Irish milliner Philip Treacy, will be split between two charities: the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and British charity Children in Crisis. The princess, the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, provided one of the most memorable moments of a dramatic day when she stepped out in the eccentric headwear, likened to a giant pretzel. Other royal-watchers compared the creation to a toilet seat”

Newborn Brooklyn baby thrown out with trash: “A bundled newborn baby was found alive this morning at the bottom of a Brooklyn housing complex’s trash compactor, where police say the mother threw the boy out with the garbage, authorities said. A maintenance supervisor at the Fort Greene site made the alarming discovery shortly before 9:30 a.m. when he heard the baby’s cries, officials said. The conscious boy was rushed to nearby Brooklyn Hospital, where he was reported in stable condition. Cops canvassed the Walt Whitman houses along Cumberland Walk in search of the mother. Hours later, cops emerged with a woman from the building’s eighth floor. Neighbors said they wished the mother had sought help. “I saw the baby bundled up,” said one resident. “Thank God it was still breathing. It was a newborn. It’s like someone didn’t want it. Plenty of people would have taken that child and raised it right.”

Priest set alight by man during mass in church: “An assailant has sprayed a Roman Catholic priest with flammable liquid and set him alight during mass in a church in Lithuania, police in the Baltic state say. Father Remigijus Kuprys, 46, managed to extinguish the flames with the help of worshippers, but suffered facial burns. The attack occurred during the service on Thursday in the central Lithuanian town of Jonava, when a 42-year-old local resident sprayed Kuprys with the flammable liquid and set it ablaze with a cigarette lighter. The motives of the assailant, identified by police only by his initials JD, were unknown. “We have reports that he had repeatedly disrupted masses and shouted weird statements. Investigators are deciding on psychiatric tests,” officer Mindaugas Juknys said today. Police said that the priest had been released from hospital after receiving treatment for his burns.”

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