Amateur athletes are being invited to take part in Germany’s first swim shoe championship during the upcoming weekend.
Since five years, a small workshop has been producing the “Mecklenburger Schwimmschuhe” swim shoes, which can be bought at a price of €345 per pair.
In the above photo boat-builder Frank-Uwe Groth (left) and an unidentified person are showing how to use so-called swim shoes at the Pinnower See lake near Godern, northeastern Germany. (AFP)
Boa delivery
A mystery caller knocked on a woman’s door – and left a four-foot snake on her doorstep.
The South American male boa, dubbed Kojak by officers, was abandoned at the house in Cricklewood, north London.
The resident told police a young woman knocked on her door and asked for Andrew before walking off and leaving a pillow case behind – which the confused householder noticed was moving. (PA)
Fit for a penguin
If it is good enough for the Prime Minister’s daughter, it is good enough for a pair of newborn penguin chicks.
After David Cameron chose to name his little girl Endellion – a reference to the north Cornish village close to where his wife Samantha went into labour – keepers at London zoo decided to follow suit.
Primrose and Regents are the latest additions to the penguin enclosure – named after local landmarks Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park. (PA)
Strange voyeurism tastes
A man has admitted hiding a mobile phone in the ceiling of the women’s toilets at his workplace to film his female colleagues, prosecutors said yesterday.
Joshua Drummond, 20, recorded a number of images of women using the toilet.
The hidden camera phone, which was placed in a suspended ceiling above a toilet cubicle, was discovered when one woman looked up and spotted it. She took the device to her boss and it was traced back to Drummond, reportedly a trainee quantity surveyor.
He pleaded guilty at South Somerset Magistrates’ Court on Monday to seven counts of voyeurism recording a private act.
Drummond is understood to have kept the material to himself and not distributed it to anyone else. (PA)
Woman who binned cat says sorry
The British woman at the centre of an internet hate campaign after being caught on camera dumping a cat into a rubbish bin has said she was “profoundly sorry” for her actions.
Mary Bale, a 45-year-old bank worker, said she had been guilty of a “split second of misjudgement” when she binned the feline, a move caught on camera and relayed around the world.
The cat was stuck in the wheelie bin for 15 hours but was discovered after her owners heard her mewing. They found out what happened after checking footage from a closed-circuit TV camera which they had installed at their house in Coventry after their car was repeatedly bumped by other vehicles.
A Facebook campaign has been launched against Ms Bale with some contributors even making death threats. (AFP)
Anglican protest
London’s red buses will be emblazoned with posters calling for the ordination of women priests in the Catholic Church when Pope Benedict XVI visits Britain next month, campaign organisers said yesterday.
The Catholic Women’s Ordination group will launch a campaign on Monday with posters on the famous scarlet buses which read “Pope Benedict - Ordain Women Now”.
The Vatican remains fiercely opposed to ordaining women, saying in new disciplinary rules issued in June that it is a “crime against the faith”.
The Anglican Church allows the ordination of women priests, although the ordination of women bishops continues to be hotly debated. (AFP)
Men’s toilet seat traits
Men leaving the toilet seat up is their most annoying habit, according to a survey of their other halves.
More than half the women quizzed (54 per cent) said failure to put the seat down was their man’s most irritating trait.
Leaving wet towels on the bed was the second most frustrating habit (23 per cent), followed by a propensity to leave dirty laundry on the floor (15 per cent).
Other annoyances cited included snoring, doing a bad job at a household chore for the fear of being asked to do it again, not replacing toilet roll, leaving toenail clippings and loose change around the home, drinking straight from the milk bottle and refusing to ask for directions when lost. (AFP)