An 81-year-old man in Hong Kong single-handedly fought off a gang of teenage muggers, police said yesterday, with eight youths arrested and some requiring hospital treatment.
The elderly man, only identified as Mak, was assaulted by the gang aged between 15 and 19 in a pedestrian tunnel during the 4 a.m. incident when he was on his way to do morning exercise. He was attacked from behind.
“They pushed him to the ground and tried to rob him. The man fought back and the gang ran away empty-handed,” a police spokesman said.
Some of the teenage muggers, five boys and three girls, sustained cuts and minor injuries after the man put up a fierce fight. Police later traced a trail of blood to a nearby flat and detained the teenagers. (AFP)
Off diary
The European Commission has apologised for printing more than three million school diaries containing no reference to Easter or Christmas.
The diaries – 330,000 of which were delivered to UK schools – note Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Chinese festivals, as well as highlighting “Europe Day” which falls on May 9.
But the lack of any acknowledgement of Easter, Christmas or any other Christian holiday angered church leaders and politicians. (PA)
Raising funds
A football club auctioned a bullock and heifer to help raise funds for its future.
The two animals were part of a list of items, including 10 litres of magnolia matt emulsion paint, two large bags of dog biscuits and a leather office chair, donated to help save Queen of the South FC in Dumfries, Scotland.
Harry Begg, auctioneer at the Dumfries Auction Market, said: “The Angus heifer made £1,200 and the yearling bullock made £820. I think the auction came to around £6,000 for all of their lots. They are happy with their day’s work.” (PA)
Tweeter revelation
The top secret raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound was inadvertently revealed to the world in a Twitter blog.
Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant living in Abbottabad, posted regular updates of helicopters swarming overhead and a “window-shaking bang”, before writing: “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”
Mr Athar, believed to be living near to bin Laden’s compound, wrote his first tweet at about 9 p.m. on Sunday night, when he noticed a helicopter. He then wrote: “A huge window-shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope it’s not the start of something nasty.” (PA)
Poncho plans
An Ohio elections board has dropped a plan to give voters a poncho to cover up if they come to the polls next month wearing clothing that promotes local schools.
The board in south-east Ohio’s Washington County had announced the poncho policy earlier this month. Board members felt showing school pride would amount to illegal polling-place campaigning on behalf of tax measures on the ballot for the local schools.
The officials changed their minds this week on the opinion of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who said wearing school gear was not electioneering. (PA)
Homeward bound
A young black bear is headed back to the wilderness after wandering through the city streets of Poughkeepsie, New York.
Officials shot the 200lb bear with a tranquilliser dart as it rested high in a pine tree in the Hudson River city.
The bear fell out of the tree and into a net.
Wildlife biologists said the male bear was about two-and-a-half years old and likely came from Connecticut, where it had been previously tagged. The bear was expected to be released on state land in north-eastern Dutchess County. (PA)
Cereal offender
A crash on a Ohio road spilled hundreds of boxes of breakfast cereal.
The accident in the Toledo area shut down the toll highway’s eastbound traffic for nearly three hours while bulldozers cleared away the mess.
Police said the driver of the tractor-trailer hauling the cereal may have fallen asleep at the wheel before his truck hit a railing and ended up on its side across both eastbound lanes.
An Ohio highway patrol dispatcher did not know the type of cereal involved. (PA)
May snowfall
Iceland saw its first May snowfall for almost a decade over the weekend, with more than 16 centimetres falling on the capital Reykjavik, meteorologists have said.
“We recorded 16.4 centimetres of snow in the Reykjavik area and the small town of Hvalfjoerdur (a few kilometres north of the capital) received 18 centimetres,” Thorsteinn Jonsson from the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.
“It’s the first time since 1993 that it has snowed in May (in Reykjavik),” he said, adding that it was the second most significant May snowfall since 1987, when 18 centimetres fell on the capital.
The snow fell from Saturday evening through Sunday morning on Iceland’s west coast, where “an air mass... brought temperatures below zero and turned the rain into snow,” said Mr Jonsson. (AFP)