A student who played Commonwealth Games mascot Clyde has won a new volunteering award presented by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Brian Borland, 23, spent hundreds of hours dressed as the thistle character during Glasgow 2014.
He was one of 10 people selected from thousands of Clydesider volunteers to play the mascot, and attended more than 200 events after first donning the suit in January 2013. (PA)
Driver with snake on neck crashes
A New York woman who crashed her Toyota Prius into a firehouse with a stolen python wrapped around her neck pleaded not guilty to charges including reckless endangerment and larceny on Tuesday, law enforcement officials said.
Sarah Espinosa, 22, from Albany, drove over the central strip on the Jericho Turnpike on Long Island and ploughed through the garage door of the New Hyde Park Fire House, damaging two fire trucks, the Nassau County Police Department said in a statement. (Reuters)
6,500-year-old skeleton in cellar
A Philadelphia archaeology museum said on Tuesday that its researchers have discovered an extremely rare 6,500-year-old human skeleton in its own basement, where it had been in storage for 85 years.
The Penn Museum, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, said it had lost track of all documentation for the skeleton, which dates to roughly 4500 BC. (Reuters)
Reindeer invade highway tunnel
Norway has been forced to close a major highway in the Arctic after reindeer invaded a road tunnel seeking refuge from unusually high temperatures.
“Our maintenance crew attempted to chase the reindeer out of the tunnel but it’s hopeless; after a few hours they’re back,” Tor Inge Hellander, the head of maintenance for the road authority told local paper Finnmark Dagblad. (Reuters)
Woman joins zoo seals for swim
A woman sneaked into the seal pool of Berlin Zoo on Monday night, risking serious injury to take a swim with the animals after closing time, zoo authorities said.
A witness told German daily Bild: “I watched as the woman stripped to her bikini and then lowered herself into the seal pool. Further back was a man taking photos.” (Reuters)
Secretary tweeted nude selfies
A secretary who posted nude pictures of herself in the Swiss Parliament to more than 11,000 followers on Twitter told a newspaper yesterday she did not believe she had broken any rules.
Many of the “selfies” were taken in her office in the Federal Palace, a 162-year-old domed building in Berne where Switzerland’s government and Parliament meet, according to Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung. (Reuters)
Five-year-old ‘mayor’ loses office
Robert Tufts lost an election for a third term as honorary mayor of a northern Minnesota town but he took the defeat in his stride and is looking forward to kindergarten, his mother said on Tuesday.
Robert, who is five years old, did not campaign this year for mayor of Dorset, which picks an honorary leader in a draw each August during its Taste of Dorset festival, Emma Tufts said. (Reuters)