Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes delighted Palestinian kids who had never seen a zebra in the flesh, at a small Gaza zoo yesterday.
With their long ears, drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the impostors probably would not have fooled the zoo's only lioness. But the effect achieved by the zoo owners' dye job looks not so bad - to the unpractised eye, and from a distance.
Nidal Barghouthi, whose father owns the Marah Land zoo, said the two female donkeys were striped using masking tape and women's hair dye, applied with a paint-brush.
"The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," he said. "The children don't know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new."
A genuine zebra would have been too expensive to bring into Israel-blockaded Gaza via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, said owner Mohammed Bargouthi. "It would have cost me $40,000 (€27,000) to get a real one." (Reuters)
Big brother is watching you
Parents can spy on their children's lunch choices thanks to a new school computer system which logs everything on a pupil's tray.
Children at St John's Church of England School, in Stanmore, north west London, use a photo ID card when they buy their lunch.
A list of the main course, side dishes and pudding they have chosen is then sent to a website, which their parents can check. (PA)
Loud praise!
A church said today its congregation had dwindled after a council imposed a noise abatement notice.
The Immanuel International Christian Centre, in Walthamstow, east London, was forced to turn down its amplified music at Sunday services following a complaint from a neighbour.
Waltham Forest Council said it took action against the church in May as a "last resort".
Since the notice was imposed, pastor Dunni Odetoyinbo said the congregation had dropped from 100 to 30.
"It has affected the life of the church completely," she said. "Most people want to come to church to sing hymns but now they can't do that. It's not such a lively place any more. (PA)
What a drag
Two cage fighters who went on a night out in fancy dress as drag queens told how they sorted out a pair of drunken thugs who came looking for a brawl.
Daniel "Lion Heart" Lerwell, 23, and James "Lights Out" Lilley, 22, looked easy prey dressed in high heels, hot pants and boob tubes.
But thugs Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, of Swansea, South Wales, got the shock of their lives when their victims fought back. (PA)
Messy end
The body of a 71-year-old woman was found in the middle of her home filled with rubbish piled 8ft high.
Police checked on Carina Decampo in Jacksonville, Florida, after worried family members called to say they had not heard from her for weeks.
After trying to search for about 20 minutes, they had to call in help. The fire service used breathing gear and search dogs to find the body. (PA)
2.6 tonnes of marijuana in bananas
First bricks of cocaine were found stashed in statues of the Virgin Mary, then in a frozen shark. Now, Mexican authorities have seized a load of "over-ripe" bananas bearing 2.6 tonnes of marijuana.
Mexico's defence ministry said Wednesday the cargo was found hidden inside a truck by soldiers who caught a whiff of pot when they stopped the vehicle at a US border checkpoint, around 100 kilometres south of Tucson, Arizona.
The soldiers "realised that the product (bananas) was over-ripe" and decided to poke around under the fruit, where they discovered 508 packages of marijuana weighing some 2,650 kilograms, the ministry said in a statement. (AFP)
Beetle attack
Scientists are racing to save tens of millions of seeds from America's native ash tree before an invasive beetle pushes the species to extinction.
Ash decorate urban landscapes and provide billions worth of timber, yet the emerald ash borer is slowly devastating the species. It has already killed millions of trees in 13 states.
Iowa State University professor Mark Widrlechner is leading efforts to collect seeds which can be frozen and ready to plant when researchers figure out how to kill or control the insect. (PA)