QUIRKY WORLD ... Cooped-up Cupcake survives eight days in box

ENGLAND: A tough Siamese cat named Cupcake has survived eight days cooped up in a box after accidentally being sent through the mail by her British owners.

Cupcake was in a box with an order of DVDs that was sent from Cornwall to West Sussex.

The recipient found a badly dehydrated Cupcake in the box along with the DVDs and contacted the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help. The RSPCA traced the owners through the cat’s microchip.

“We looked everywhere for her,” owner Julie Baggott said on Sunday, adding that she felt terrible about Cupcake’s ordeal.

Lion on the loose

SOUTH AFRICA: A lion called Sylvester, who was on the loose for three weeks last year, has escaped from his game reserve again and is wandering a sparsely populated mountain region, South African National Parks (SANParks) said.

The big cat probably broke out by crawling under an electric fence after heavy rains dislodged earth over the weekend, SANParks spokeswoman Fayroush Ludick told Reuters.

“We realised early yesterday morning when they check all the satellite tracking collars that he had escaped. We are awaiting a helicopter to begin an aerial search,” she said.

The likelihood of him encountering a human being is slim, Ludick said, but urged people not to approach Sylvester should they come across him.

“It’s the very same lion that escaped last year. I think we should change his name to Houdini.”

Last June, the animal went on a sheep-killing spree, wandering 300km before he was found taking a nap by rangers and airlifted from the Nuweveld Mountains, 1,750m above sea level.

“We anticipate this operation will be a lot quicker because he is wearing a tracking collar,” said Ludick.

Donut wars

USA: Two Indiana bakeries share a love for four-sided doughnuts but one of them believes there is room for only one square doughnut-maker.

Family Express asked a court to declare that it can continue to call its products “Square Donuts”.

But Square Donuts, which has been making its doughnuts since the 1960s and has nine locations, wants Family Express to cut it out.

Family Express started making its version in 2005, and a year later, Square Donuts sent Family Express a cease-and-desist letter.

The low-level disagreement fermented quietly for several years until Square Donuts in 2013 trademarked its name.

Family Express contacted Square Donuts to try to reach an agreement over the name, but those talks went nowhere.

Climb crime

USA: A man who refused for 25 hours to climb down from the canopy of a giant sequoia in downtown Seattle was charged with malicious mischief and assault over his treetop standoff, which drew national headlines and created a sensation on social media.

Prosecutors also requested a court order to keep Cody Lee Miller, 28, from going near the 80-foot-tall tree again, according to charging documents filed in King County.

Miller was arrested after a day-long confrontation with authorities who tried to cajole him down from the tree, located on public property in downtown Seattle, police said.

As the encounter played out on live television, police closed an area at the base of the tree to protect the public from the possibility of falling objects, including the man himself, who became a top trending topic on Twitter as #ManInTree.

Holding authorities at bay, Miller threw pine cones and branches at firefighters, police, and pedestrians, according to prosecutors, and drew a crowd of onlookers whose reactions ranged from awe to annoyance.

“This caused an incalculable waste of time and services,” King County prosecutor Stephen Herschkowitz wrote in the charging documents.

Miller was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer and malicious mischief for allegedly causing roughly $7,800 in damage to the tree, which the city planted more than 40 years ago, the documents said.

Giant sequoias, which rank as the world’s largest trees, normally can be expected to survive 200 to 300 years in an urban setting.

His motivation in scaling the tree has not been explained. Miller is due to be arraigned on April 11, prosecutors said.

Teen’s school ruse

USA:

A teenager who toured an Ohio high school while posing as a state senator has pleaded guilty to impersonating a peace officer.

Prosecutors say they’ll recommend probation for Marion resident Izaha Akins. The 18-year-old pleaded guilty to the felony charge. Authorities say Akins spoke to a government class at Mohawk High School in Sycamore for an hour last December. Officials didn’t realise they’d been duped until Republican Senator David Burke showed up weeks later for a scheduled appearance.