A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".
Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.
He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told.
"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.
Mr Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.
Fly and earn!
Flybe has given the term low-fare airline an entirely new meaning: It is paying 172 people to fly back and forth across England and the Irish Sea to help it meet a target for passenger numbers at Norwich airport.
Flybe was narrowly falling short of a target to deliver at least 15,000 passengers on the Dublin-Norwich route in the 12 months ending yesterday, which meant it would have to forego a £280,000 rebate from the airport.
After the airport rejected a request for a partial rebate for almost hitting the target, Flybe hired 172 temps for £30-£40 each, plus a free bar and in-flight entertainment, though it admitted "it probably sounds like an early April fool".
But Richard Jenner, managing director of the airport in eastern England, called the British carrier's move "ludicrous" and said the target had to be met by regular fare-paying passengers. "The ludicrousness is on the Norwich side who in essence have tried to hold us to ransom, putting at risk routes into Norwich," Flybe Chief Commercial Officer Mike Rutter replied in a joint interview with Jenner on Irish public broadcaster RTE.
Crocodile stolen from aquarium
A thief walked unnoticed out of a Norwegian aquarium carrying a crocodile at the weekend and now risks losing a finger or two, the head of the aquarium said yesterday.
"I think whoever did this knew what they were doing," Bergen aquarium director Kees Oscar Ekeli said, suggesting the young crocodile was smuggled out in a bag during the busiest hours on Saturday.
The stolen reptile, named Taggen (Spike), is a 70-centimetre-long smooth-fronted caiman also known as Schneider's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus Trigonatus).
Taggen eats "a good mix of fish and meat" and can grow to be about 2.5 metres long. "It has a solid bite. Considering it is not bigger than it is, you could lose a few fingers, but no vital organs," Mr Ekeli said.
Pen-spinning contest
A pen is spun in the hand, flicked from the little finger to other fingers, then tossed and bounced off the thumb before being twirled in the palm.
Ryuki Omura, a 16-year-old Japanese high school student, has become the first nationwide pen-spinning champion with such slick manoeuvres, a group devoted to the pastime said yesterday. Mr Omura was among the 16 finalists chosen from 276 video entries to showcase his moves in Tokyo on Sunday in a contest organised by the Pen Spinning Association Japan.
According to the Pen Spinning Association's website, spinning tricks range from "normal" - resting the pen on the side of the middle finger, then flicking it to writing mode - to "sonic" - holding the pen between the middle and ring fingers, and twirling it so it rests between the middle and index fingers.
Champion Omura went a step further, showing off a quick combination of tricks that takes the pen from his little finger to the rest of his fingers, then to his palm and the back of his hand. The video clip he submitted for the contest is posted on the group's website (http://ptj2008.pen-spinning.org/).
Rain threatens doomsday cult
Russian authorities are urging 28 members of a doomsday cult to leave the mud bunker in which they are awaiting the end of the world, saying spring rain may trigger its collapse at any time.
The doomsday cult members have been barricaded in an underground shelter dug out of a muddy hillside gully in the Penza region of central Russia since October. They have been refusing to come out until the end of the world, which they predict will happen in late April or May.
"Negotiations to get the people out are ongoing, and we have explained that there is a danger of collapse if they remain in the cave," said Oleg Melnichenko, vice-governor of Penza region and head of the Russian government's operation here. "Right now we are here to make sure they don't suffocate."
Smoking tortoise found
A tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been discovered in China's northeastern province of Jilin, state media reported.
The animal is the pet of a man, identified by his surname Yun, who is himself a smoker, Xinhua news agency said, quoting a local newspaper.
One day, Mr Yun teased the tortoise by putting a cigarette butt into its mouth, and to his surprise it started to smoke it, according to the news agency.
From then on, he shared his cigarettes with his pet, Xinhua said.