Odd News

HARRISONBURG, Va. - A Harrisonburg court has dismissed a case against a baby boy summoned to appear in court for an unpaid bill. Richard White said he was shocked when he got a subpoena in the mail requiring his 1-year-old son, Jacy, to appear in Rockingham County General District Court next Tuesday over a $391 chiropractor bill.

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. - Out of the frying pan and into the fire. That's pretty much what happened to a Cumberland County couple arrested and charged with whacking each other with a frying pan.

CONFLUENCE, Pa. - Two Somerset County men are charged with trying to steal live power lines that were still attached to a transformer and utility poles.

BUCHAREST, Romania - A mother bear and her young cub stopped traffic and caused panic Thursday in central Romania after they roamed through gardens in search of food and finally climbed the stairs of a 4-story building and broke onto the roof. A rescue team tranquilized the mother after failing to steer her toward a nearby forest, officials said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Aliens from outer space have been visiting Britain for years and UFO sightings doubled after the film Close Encounters was released in 1977, according to secret files collating reports by members of the public.

LONDON (Reuters) - The advertising watchdog has banned a poster for a teenage TV drama series that featured a dishevelled, semi-naked young woman sitting on a bed, surrounded by couples apparently taking part in an orgy.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ladies, take your battle for the environment a little closer to your heart with a solar-powered bra that can generate enough electric energy to charge a mobile phone or an iPod.

SALZBURG, Austria (Reuters) - "The Sound of Music," one of Hollywood's greatest money-spinners, will scale new heights when the original von Trapp family villa near Salzburg opens as a hotel in July.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour JetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation."

HUSAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Sigurdur Hjartarson is missing a human penis. But he's not worried: four men have promised to donate theirs to him when they die.

LONDON (Reuters) - Aliens from outer space have been visiting Britain for years and UFO sightings doubled after the film Close Encounters was released in 1977, according to secret files collating reports by members of the public.

VIENNA (Reuters) - A man has escaped from his Austrian jail cell by squeezing through a food hatch in the door, police said on Wednesday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of "extraterrestrial brothers" perhaps more evolved than humans.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Bridegroom Kedir Mohamed wanted his wedding day to go with a bang and decided to celebrate by letting off firecrackers after the ceremony.

ATHENS, Greece - A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef can see a world beyond the rainbow that is invisible to other animals, scientists said on Wednesday.

FORT SMITH, Ark. - A race for a seat in the Arkansas House has taken on biblical proportions as a contender's campaign mailing offers a one-word description of the incumbent: "Judas!"

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Officials at the Calgary Zoo remained baffled on Tuesday as they tried to puzzle out just why 34 of their stingrays suddenly died.

DES MOINES, Iowa - A robbery was prevented Thursday by an unusual crime-fighting tool — a parked car. Karla Gierstors of West Des Moines was walking in downtown Des Moines about 6:15 a.m. Thursday when a man threatened her with a box cutter and grabbed her purse.

DETROIT - A Girl Scout sold 17,328 boxes of the group's signature cookies this year by setting up shop on a street corner, shattering her troop's old mark and probably setting a national record.

PATNA, India (Reuters) - An eastern Indian state is recruiting around 4,000 barbers to give free haircuts to poor children to improve hygiene and stop the children "looking funny", a senior government official said.

PHILADELPHIA - Customs agents seized more than two dozen giant beetles — some the size of a child's hand — from an overseas package after postal workers heard the insects making scratching noises.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev may be Russia's president but Vladimir Putin has kept his place in the Kremlin.

DOWNEY, Calif. - With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music. But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don't quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian woman woke up to a real-life nightmare, discovering that the naked man who had slipped into her bed in the middle of the night was a thief, not her husband, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK - The days of the cursing cabbie may be over. A New York City cab driver has been fined $1,000 for launching a foul-mouthed tirade at another cabbie.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is offering its athletes big cash incentives for Olympic gold medals -- but will pay out in instalments to stop them squandering it.

MINEOLA, N.Y. - Police say a dimwitted scheme to steal light poles from a village storage yard has resulted in two arrests on Long Island. Nassau County Police Lt. Ray Cote said Wednesday that neighbors noticed two men carving up the aluminum poles with a cordless power tool and stashing them in a van under the cover of darkness. He says plainclothes officers arrived and caught the thieves in the act.

LONDON (Reuters) - Fourth division striker Lee Thorpe faces a miserable summer after breaking his arm in three places while arm-wrestling with a Rochdale team mate on the bus taking the team to a playoff match at Darlington.