Odd News

BELLEVILLE, Ill. - Look out Tiger Woods, 5-year-old Drew Gray's got game.

TRENTON, N.J. - Cries for help inside a Trenton, N.J., home turned out to be for the birds. Neighbors called police Wednesday morning after hearing a woman's persistent cry of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in to make a rescue.

DALLAS - A robber rolled into a Dallas convenience store came armed with a bat and a knife. He left with a lot of condoms and an energy drink.

BOISE, Idaho - The Idaho Vandals football team is dumping the letter "I" from the buttocks region of players' new pants following a season-opening 70-0 loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek anarchists stormed a supermarket on Thursday and handed out food for free in the latest of a wave of raids provoked by soaring consumer prices.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung was Wednesday jailed for two hours and fined S$17,000 ($11,850) for lying to get approval for a kidney transplant and for organ trading, the Straits Times newspaper said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A naked German hiker has vowed to carry on rambling in the nude despite spending 10 days in jail for breaking public nudity laws.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A bronze mirror that is more than 1,600 years old was stolen from a museum in Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province, the Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, citing a museum curator.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Police are trying to track down a man filmed riding a skateboard down a steep stretch of south German motorway at 100 km an hour (62 mph), far above the speed limit.

LONDON (Reuters) - "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers" benefited from a late surge in public support to win the title on Friday of oddest book title of the past 30 years, The Bookseller magazine said.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British MP trekking in Colombia was held at gunpoint in the jungle and forced to eat coffee whitener from a jar in his backpack after soldiers mistook it for cocaine.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lingerie creator Heather Thomson got a jump-start on the New York Fashion Week, turning to some of the city's best pole dancers to display her new line of Yummie Tummie underwear on Thursday.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Two women have made history at Vienna's Spanish Riding School by becoming the first female riders to pass the entrance exam in 436 years.

LONDON (Reuters) - Fans of classical music and jazz are creative, pop lovers are hardworking and, despite the stereotypes, heavy metal listeners are gentle, creative types who are at ease with themselves.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A Charleston man faces drunken driving charges after police spotted him riding a farm tractor on a highway without lights or proper warning signs. Kanawha County sheriff's deputies arrested 22-year-old Joshua David Postalwait early Friday morning.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was unpopular with voters but T-shirts printed with his huffy parting shot are now a hit.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Think rush hour is bad enough? What if a three-foot python were part of the drive home? The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Friday that biochemical engineer Marika Suominen-Yeh got the surprise of her life last week when a motorist flagged her down after seeing a snake drop from beneath her minivan.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Authorities in central Taiwan have turned off the red light at the county's last legal brothel after the death of its pimp aged 87, newspapers said on Friday.

BOSTON - A Massachusetts doctor has been fired and lost the right to renew his medical license for allegedly trying to give a pregnant woman an epidural while drunk.

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Maasai warrior Lempuris Lalasho went to Kenya's tourist haven Mombasa to find a white woman to marry, but he ended up working as a hairdresser, a profession that is taboo in his culture.

CINCINNATI - A 71-year-old Cincinnati preacher convicted of waving a gun and threatening another driver won't be going to jail. A Hamilton County judge on Thursday sentenced Thomas Howell to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service on his conviction for aggravated menacing.

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - A club where dancers generate power to light the floor, drinks come in recyclable cups and toilets flush with rain water opened in the Netherlands on Thursday, hoping to lure environmentally conscious clubbers.

PANGUITCH, Utah - One Utah community is cheering a special bear — but don't call him Smokey. Investigators say a large black bear raided a clandestine marijuana growing operation so often that it chased the grower away.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He has set world records for transatlantic crossings in a powerboat and balloon and now billionaire Sir Richard Branson is aiming to make the fastest crossing of the Atlantic in a mono-hull sailing yacht.

PALESTINE, Texas - A routine package delivery turned into a milestone for a UPS driver in East Texas.

LONDON (Reuters) - A father mistakenly declared dead after going missing eight years ago has been reunited with his family after his son spotted him on television, police said on Thursday.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Chattanooga firefighters rescued several cats during a house fire that investigators say was probably caused by the cats themselves.

LONDON (Reuters) - A specialist armed police officer is facing investigation after leaving a loaded gun in a Starbucks cafe in central London, police said on Thursday.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A gang of unruly teenage bush parrots have wrought havoc at a bird sanctuary in New Zealand by using their powerful beaks to destroy nesting boxes.